


Bad man, bad dad

by Avra



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aftermath, Angst, Bad Parent Gabriel Agreste, Episode: s03 Love Eater (The Battle of the Miraculous Part 1), Episode: s03 Miracle Queen (The Battle of the Miraculous Part 2), F/M, Gabriel Agreste salt, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth Identity Reveal, Mentioned Master Fu (Miraculous Ladybug), Mentor Master Fu (Miraculous Ladybug), Post-Episode: s03 Miracle Queen (The Battle of the Miraculous Part 2), Sarcasm, end of hawkmoth, new villain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-12 10:40:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29883330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avra/pseuds/Avra
Summary: In this "what-if", Miracle Queen didn't happen. At least, not the way it was in canon.What if Chloe had a talk with Ladybug, that explained why she didn't give her the Bee Miraculous during Love Eater?What if she didn't accept to be Hawkmoth's queen, in his twisted game?Let's see what those decisions change a lot, shall we?(the first chapter is the one proposed in another fic I did about Miracle Queen, the rest would be the continuation of this old "what-if", like a more developped story, instead of one chapter)
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Chloé Bourgeois & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 2
Kudos: 45





	1. Bad man

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: For those that read my story called “At your service, my queen”, the first chapter is from this story. So you might need to wait for chapter two. 
> 
> This story is the continuation of a “what-if” I did about the Miracle Queen/Mange Amour (Love Eater) episodes. To show what happened, without checking the other fic, I added the initial “what-if” as the first chapter for this fic. The story would happen during Love Eater first, the Miracle Queen, and finally around what happened after that fight if the “what if” really happened.

Ladybug was in a rush. She just took the dragon miraculous from Master Fu to give it to Kagami. The discussion that she had with the young fencer was still troubling her mind. It was still confusing how Kagami swore that she didn't want to hurt her, as Marinette but still did everything to date Adrien. 

She knew that she shouldn't expect someone to be like her. To accept with a broken heart that the guy she loved would be happier with someone else. To let him go reluctantly, even pushing him in someone else's arms. But... How she phrased her conviction to keep pursuing Adrien was strange. How could she say that she didn't want to hurt her, before saying that she refused to renounce trying to be with Adrien, even for their friendship ? Only one person will win Adrien's heart, and the more time went, the more Marinette thought that she couldn't win this fight. 

Like Kagami said, the fencer was so similar to the model, like they were meant to be. Adrien loved another girl, and if she had to guess, it was Kagami. He did ask her for some advice for taking the Tsugugi's heir on a date and she was someone who wouldn't like his jokes. Would it hurt ? Yes. It still wasn't the first time that Marinette had some doubts and thought that she needed to move on.

Nevertheless, she couldn't show anything, placing a poker face on to pretend that everything was fine. She jumped again to lend on another rooftop, the sound of Ryoku's foot proving that the temporary heroine was behind.They landed on a part of the famous hotel's rooftop, looking at the situation at street's level. 

Chat Noir was fighting alone the akuma, Love Eater that was turning around, shooting beams at the hero. Seeing that, she looked around, turning to Ryuko, ordering her what to do. The asian girl nodded and jumped on the battlefield. Ryuko screamed at Chat Noir to take it a little far away, making sure to whisper what was planned to Chat Noir when they ran down a street far from the hotel. 

Ladybug was looking from her place, making sure that everything was in order. She couldn't just call her Lucky Charm in the first minutes of the fight since what she wanted to do couldn't be contained in only five minutes. The right place and right moment was needed. Love Eater didn't seem to know that she was here, ordering that they needed both the cat and ladybug miraculous. Ladybug needed to make sure that Mayura wasn't near. Someone in her said that Hawkmoth's second in command was still somewhere out in Paris. 

The gasp that Ladybug heard just next to her made her stop looking around. When she turned around, she was met by a shocked Chloe Bourgeois, next to a ridiculous giant spotlight that the rich girl used to demand her miraculous. Her shocked face turned to anger and indignation when she saw that the spotted hero didn't have what she wanted.

« What about me?! » Chloe said, putting a hand on her chest. « Honestly, it was  _ me  _ that you should have given a miraculous! Everything is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous! »

Ladybug turned to look at the fight just a street afar. The akuma was coming back near the hotel, nearly beaten down. With a sigh, instead of jumping into the fight, Ladybug jumped on the floor next to Chloe, making her less noticeable by the akuma.

« I'm sorry Chloe, but you can't join us. Not for this fight. »

« It's  _ my _ parents! » Chloe screamed, clenching her fists while bending a little forward, eyes narrowing. « It has to be  _ me  _ who saves them! »

« It's especially because it's your parents that you can't. » Ladybug riposted, standing her grounds.

« What?! »

« Do you know why police officers are excluded to cases when they are related to someone in the case? »

« No. But why those losers can't even be in police cases is related to my parents getting akumatized, and about you, not giving me a miraculous? »

« Police officers can't be related to certain cases because things are too personal. The moment a loved one is linked to a case, the officer can lose his calm and logic. It's not just a random person that they have to save, protect or put in jail, it's someone that they care about. It's the same here. Mistakes can be made and Hawkmoth can use the fact that you are close to his akuma to mess with your mind and distract you. »

« As if I'm going to be distracted by Hawkmoth! He can't stop me from saving my parents! »

« Everything could be used to change our plan in order to save them. Your parents targuetting you most since you're their child, making the bee more of a distraction than an attacker and first front hero like it should be. Hawkmoth tempting his akuma to say the right words to make you hesitate or distracted, making you an easy target. Hesitation on your part when you have to strike, since you don't want to hurt them. Mayura coming and changing everything, chasing for your miraculous while the akuma attack my partner and me, like during Miraculer. And … » Ladybug explained, a thoughtful look in her eyes while proposing some examples, turning her head away from the direction of Chloe. « ...Do you remember Hero Day? »

By not looking at Chloe, Ladybug didn't see the way Chloe's eyes widened, a hurt look crossing her face before neutrality wan over it. Hero Day was a good example of how Hawkmoth could use their loved ones to hurt them. Rena Rouge and Carapace were turned into controlled heroes easily because they loved each other. Queen Bee's parents were already used to making her weak. 

After that fight, Ladybug swore that she would think more about who she brought with her, at least a little. There were some times when she returned back to her bad habit to give a miraculous to the first person that she knew and was near, sometimes to apologize about something she did or said. However, she still thought about which already chosen temporary hero she could call. With her list of people that could fight by her side, she created a strategy not only around miraculous's powers but also around who wore them. The link between the akuma and the hero was minimized. No sister against other sisters, or child against mother. It was for the best. Every weakness could be used.

« Chloe, I sent Ryuko in today's battle because she isn't linked to the akuma. She doesn't have a second or secret motive when she fights. She is someone that, for that battle, can have a cold head about the whole situation and can't be influenced. »

« Are you saying that you prefer that red thing over me? » 

« No. If she is too close to an akuma, not near the akuma to make it possible to give the miraculous, or that the miraculous power isn't great for the battle, she won't be called. » Ladybug said, putting her hand on Chloe's shoulder. « I put the same criteria for each temporary hero. It's not about who is better or not and who isn't used often, Chloe. There isn't only you who didn't have the possibility to be on the field for a while. Did you see Carapace around? The guy was already here before hero day and he didn't even get a flying balloon at his effigy, with how much people don't see him often. » 

Ladybug’s face twisted, not knowing if it was a funny or sad anecdote. 

« I won't let you fight against your own parents. It's already traumatizing enough to be in the battlefield, a magic being threatening you and hurting you. I won't make it even more horrible by making you fight them. There  _ is _ the possibility that you might never trust them again, looking at their akuma forms instead of their normal selves. It's a part of the trauma that could happen. That's why I treat temporary heroes like the police force manage their men when they are attributed cases.»

Her lessons with the police force made her want to see akuma fights in another vision. It wasn't just about finding the akuma's object, break it and cast the cure anymore. There were also civilians, escaping routes for them as well. After some time, people understood that they shouldn't go near where the akuma was. They stayed at home, or in any type of building or run in the other direction. 

Of course, there were still some people who thought that their scoop meant more than their own life but it was another can of worms that Ladybug didn't want to open. Hero Day was really a date to remember, changing things for the better. Ladybug went to a police station with Chat Noir, explaining what they wanted to learn from them. She promised that she didn't want to proclaim that she had the same rôle, power, and studies than a police woman but she still wanted to have their opinion on certain matters. After all, they didn't need to fight someone that turned into an akuma since they thought they could lose their job because of heroes. Or was angry that an outsider claimed that they could do their job better than them.

She learnt with Chat Noir, with the help of a group of officers, how cases were given to people, how they dealt with akumas and civilians so far. Both sides didn't want the police force to try to fight an akuma, only to get hurt or in general danger, like in the battle with Captain Hardrock, for example. 

After hours in an office, they came with a more in-depth view of how an akuma fight went for both sides as well as the idea of an official app that could alert viewers of akumas. Any information that could be used was always a plus before going into the fight. From where the akuma is now, to the object or power of the akumatization if people saw anything. Like that, each side could help more and didn't have to go blind into anything.

Escape routes and level of danger were decided as well. Police officers that were specifically in the akuma unit could use those routes to help and protect civilians when they run away. On the other hand, levels of danger were there to make people know what type of akuma was roaming free. Ladybug and Chat Noir could as well know what type of strategy was needed with that type of information. After that, it became easier for everyone.

Ladybug looked at Chloe, her hand still on the blonde's shoulder. The girl seemed to mule over every information that she just got. It didn't explain everything, of course, but it was still enough for now. Ladybug's stare hardened at the thought of Hawkmoth using Chloe again. She already had been akumatized at multiple occasions, was the reason, like her, behind a fair amount of akumatizations. If she could help it, Ladybug had to stop Chloe being a target. Again. Her face softened, an idea coming in her mind.

« How about this? » Ladybug's voice made Chloe look at her face. « I will come to train you, making you a better fighter, and you would be able to transform into a hero while we train. I will make you learn what I learn, from fighting techniques, to strategic one from the police force. I already did it with Rena Rouge and Carapace before, since they were the first temporary heroes. As of for now, I have Roi Since with me. I can add you as well in this group.»

She didn't say anything about how Chat Noir, after learning that, proposed to train Viperion and Pegasus. She was grateful that her partner wanted to take a little bit of her burden on his shoulders, even if Fu's training made her scream internally that she should do everything herself. 

To lighten the mood, Chat Noir had joked about his wish to call some temporary heroes his padawans. Deep inside, Chat Noir wanted to at least train Luka. Since he had some time as Aspick, he was the best option to know how the snake miraculous worked. From the mental weight, to how each second chance worked like a timeline that was erased from existence the moment the hero went back. It was a shock to everyone when Bunnix arrived at their first meet-up. Apparently one time or another, it would be said that Bunnix was needed at that exact time and place to teach how timelines worked. 

It was a great help for Viperion who had a better hold on how his power worked. Sparing between groups had become a routine, something usual between them. It wasn't like they could ask someone to train them without being suspicious and Master Fu was more into hiding than helping. If it wasn't Ladybug and Chat Noir trying to bond to be better fighting together, it was nights with temporary heroes. No wonder that Nino and Alya had been seen jumping and running like pros on a bridge, or how Marinette and Adrien were professionals on how to mask eye bags. At least now that temporary heroes were included in night training, Alya stopped adding pictures for the Marinette's Challenge for time to time when she was exhausted as well.

« Why all of those losers had training with you, and not me? » Chloe snaped, awakening Ladybug from her musing. « Even new ones get to do that, and not me! »

« I didn't ask those who had their identities revealed. You, Multimouse and Ryuko are out, since Hawkmoth could use your identities to his advantage. For now I was searching for a way to make your suit different, in order to pretend that you're a different person, and not Chloe Bourgeois behind the mask. But since there isn't new information for that, I tried to find other miraculous that could fit both of you. I have already something in mind for Ryuko. »

« But I don't want to be anything else than Queen Bee! It's who I am! I don't want another miraculous, the bee is  _ my  _ miraculous! » Chloe retorted. Even her outfit had yellow stripes! It was meant to be!

« That what I feared, Chloe. » Ladybug replied, a sad smile on her face. « Since you don't want to use another miraculous, I had to find another way to make it look like it's not you. The suit seems really restrictive into color schemes and aspects. If how I was in black and green leather as Lady Noire or how someone I know looked similar to Mayura when using the peacock decades ago weren't any indication. If I find a way to keep you as Queen Bee without you being an easier target since the enemy knows your identity, I will use that way. For now, I would train you secretly. To become a better hero, to not make the same mistakes for both of us, to bond and be better fighting together. » Ladybug proclaimed, letting her hand fall from Chloe's shoulder to present it in front of her. « What do you say? »

Chloe Bourgeois looked from the outstretched hand to Ladybug's face. With first hesitation then determination, she gripped Ladybug's hand, sealing their deal.

« Cataclysm! » Chat Noir roared in the background, destroying the akuma's object. When the butterfly started to fly away, he looked up, searching for his partner. « Ladybug! The akuma! »

With a quick swooch of her yo-yo, Ladybug took the butterfly, realising it as a white and pure butterfly. She called for her Lucky Charm, a small bottle that looked like those stereotype bottles for spells and potion, before tossing it in the air, shouting for Miraculous Ladybug. 

She sent a nod and a smile to Chloe before jumping near Ryuko and Chat Noir, giving them the usual fist bump. Ladybug said farewell to Chat Noir before guiding Ryuko to a safe hideout, taking away the dragon miraculous and sending away the fencer, a longing expression on the hero's face. After a while, Ladybug found another place to detransform, sighing. She gave a cookie to Tikki, looking around her to know which way to go next. When she knew where she was and where to go to return to the park, Marinette sighed one more time.

« Are you okay Marinette? » Tikki asked, not even half of the cookie eaten. How many times did she hear her kwami saying that?

« I'm fine Tikki. I... I need to go back to Master Fu to give back the dragon miraculous. »

Tikki nodded, going back in the pink purse while munching the rest of her cookie. While walking back to the park, Marinette reminded her of how Chloe smiled back at her before she went away.

« At least something went well today... » Marinette mumbled, turning in another street.

**

Back at the hotel, Chloe walked away from the big bee spot-light, going back inside. She was, however, blocked by Hawkmoth himself, in his purple glory. Chloe retreated a little, hitting the railing in the end of the roof, seeing the man in front of him. She tried to put her hands on the cold metal to keep her calm, looking at his face to prove her dominance. But the coldness of the railing only made her compare it to how his eyes behind that ugly mask – Chloe knew that they needed to hide their identities now but  _ come on _ – were staring at her, like he could read into her mind.

The villain started to speak slowly some of his words, pausing in the middle of a phrase or prolonging his words. The start of his monologue didn't register, since Chloe was still shocked. Was she hallucinating? Hawkmoth was never present during an akuma! It was only the akuma there, then Mayura started to come as well, but never him! 

The only reason why he was physically there was because he was planning a bigger scene, a bigger plan to win. Did that mean that... Something was going to happen? And if he was there, in front of her, was she a part of his plan? Ladybug was right, after all. Now it looked like Hawkmoth wanted to use her more and more.

«... Paris needs a new queen. And the queen of my chess game is you. » Hawkmoth said, in a voice that sounded like a whisper without being low.

« You dared to akumatized my parents. » Chloe sneered with a frown on her face. « If I had my miraculous, I'll... »

« It's true. » The man cut, and a hand raised like the movement could shut up Chloe. « But I did it only for one reason. To make you understand that Ladybug would never give you the bee miraculous back. On the contrary of her... » Hawkmoth continued, raising his other hand to open it in front of her, revealing the bee miraculous. « I can assure you that I always keep my words. »

« It can't be the real one! » Chloe responded, shocked to see her beloved comb into Hawkmoth's purple glove. « Why do you have it? »

« Try it. And see for yourself. » Hawkmoth riposted with a dark and deep voice before it turned higher. « You are Ladybug's biggest fan, and you helped her, trusted her. But what about her? Say to me what she did to you in exchange. »

Chloe looked at the miraculous that was presented to her. Why did Ladybug gave to her? Since the moment she saved her from being a crumble of skin and bones on the floor near the Eiffel Tower the first day, Ladybug became her hero, someone to look up to. Chloe didn't change by trying to be like her idol. She was fine with how she was now and before. 

People stay the same in their core and she didn't have any reason to change. Faking to be nice didn't last long for her anyway. She did use this fake disguise to be like Ladybug. More than playing around, it was a way to train herself. The yo-yo with it wasn't magic but at least she could learn how to use it since her weapon as Queen Bee was similar. Her ballet lessons made her more elegant, more agile, perfect for dodging with grace. Thanks kwami she wouldn't take the role of hero as a job like Ladybug seemed to take it and yet it was so good to be Queen Bee. To be by Ladybug's and that idiot cat's side, fighting. To have more praise and glory. That was why she liked it, wishing to continue.

Since she was the best at everything that she liked and wanted to try, she declared herself Ladybug's biggest fan. For months the Bourgeois girl didn't know why Ladybug didn't contact her. She was the best hero with the bee miraculous! Even those peasants could look at her and respected her more than before now! However, Ladybug didn't come. Not to her secret-not-that-secret hideout. Not the times she used the Bee Call during the night. She didn't do something wrong! Unknown hypocrites didn't say that she was mean today!

So what did Ladybug give back to her, for her loyalty?

At first, Ladybug snapped at her since she took a miraculous without her permission.

_ She might have been afraid that the miraculous came to the wrong hands. Chloe could have presented the miraculous to Ladybug or even – gag – Chat Noir and ask then if she could be a hero too. _

Then, she blurted out that she shouldn't have messed up with that subway, making her and Chat Noir more work to do.

_ She endangered people that shouldn't have been in this situation in the first place if she didn't want to have people to save at the instant. _

To finally whine about the fact that secret identities had to be secret and her revealing it the instant that she became Queen Bee was a huge mistake.

_ Because it made her more vulnerable, showing which person would have to be targeted to make her distracted, weak. Because it created a target on her back in and out of the mask. _

She didn't come to her night-time meetings that she planned in order to take back the bee miraculous. It was hers, and only hers and she deserved to have Ladybug come there to give it to her. But she didn't.

_ Outside of akumas, patrols on the other side of Paris, and apparently training sessions, Ladybug was never seen flying around Paris. Let alone during the night. It was more a thing for her sidekick. He was the one that jumped from roof to roof at night even if it wasn't his day to patrol. Paris was huge, it would have been a miracle that the day Ladybug is on patrol, she watched the zone near the hotel when Chloe used the spot-light. _

She didn't let her be Queen Bee for so long.

_ She was searching for a way to let her be a hero without her identity being too obvious, making it easier and safer for her. _

She was incompetent.

_ She was Paris' beloved hero. _

Chloe wasn't the type to change herself, at least for too long since nature came back the moment she had to stop faking. She wasn't Hawkmoth's pawn. Not Queen Warsp or any other stupid name that he could give her. She was Chloe Bourgeois, Queen Bee, Ladybug's biggest fan. So, she took the bee miraculous from Hawkmoth, placing it in her hair. 

At least now, the guy that couldn't see style even if it slapped him in the face didn't have her miraculous with him. Polen popped up in existence after the light went away, bowing to her and calling her her queen. After a quick transformation, Queen Bee jumped on the railing. Before bouncing on the next rooftop, she was stopped by Hawkmoth's hand that wrapped itself on her wrist.

« Where do you think you are going? » Hawkmoth growled.

« Searching for Chat Noir and Ladybug obviously. There is still some chance that they are still transformed in an alleyway. If I'm seen around you, it won't be a surprise anymore. I have to pretend that I'm still a faithful ally before revealing that I'm on the other side of the battlefield all along. »

« You have to accept to be my akuma, Queen Bee. By accepting it from the get go, you'll be stronger, more able to destroy the girl that failed you. » Hawkmoth said, a hint of order behind his voice like he would never accept that someone refused to obey him. He opened the ball at the end of his cane, one of the two butterflies in it flying out of it.

« No. I don't want to be your slave. Like you said, Paris needs a queen. It needs my reign as Queen Bee to transform it into the perfect place to rule over. » Queen Bee answered, looking right at his eyes, lifting her chin in a proof of royalty, flipping her ponytail away for good measure. « I want to be conscious when I'm going to beat up my enemies. »

« … Very well. » He resigned, calling back the purple butterfly inside his cane. « A surprise like an ally turning on them would be a good thing. Maybe we could make them turn against each other if one of them is too emotional about it. Go, my queen, you can find a place to stay until I call you for the final battle. »

With a nod, Queen Bee jumped away from the hotel. Chloe could accept that she wasn't the best liar. It was Lila's job description in the class drama. She, on the other hand, was blunt, only caring about her, not caring about people's feelings. And yet, it wasn't like she lied to Hawkmoth. Queen Been had the impression that the man could do more than ordering around for a bunch of jewels. 

He could feel people's emotions, why they are feeling like this, how to twist their mind to make them believe it was a good idea to make a deal with him. If she had even thought about her real intentions, he would have known. When she was far away, Queen Bee let herself shudder. She really didn't like to be called  _ My Queen _ by a weird, old guy.


	2. The final battle (part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new type of battle during what could have been Miracle Queen, part 1.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt that the Bad man, Bad dad story was too long, so I separated it in two. Then more when I continued to write. I know each chapter is not equal in length, but I thought it would be okay to stop at the end of Mange Amour (Love Eater), and start again for the Miracle Queen episode. (that isn't really one, since there isn't that akuma this time), and so forth.

His shirt was going to be wet with her tears. And Marinette didn't care. After crumbling down in the park when she saw how devastated it was, she had to stay there for a few minutes, on the floor and looking blankly in front of her. It was her fault, wasn't it?

It wasn't hard to tell that something happened in the park. Something bad. Master Fu wasn't here, neither was the Miracle Box. Everything was thrown on the floor and Marinette stayed in the middle of it for a long time. When she was calm enough to push every feeling into the bottle deep inside her heart, shutting it tight, she stood again.

After dusting off her pink jeans, she walked out of the park like nothing happened. However, with just a few words from Luka, that miraculously passed near the park's entrance at that time, and she was in her actual situation.

She was deep into Luka's embrace, his shirt wet from her tears, crumpled by her hands. It wasn't the fact he wanted to help her that made her wit in front of him. It was the fact that she couldn't be herself in front of him, like he wanted her to. One part of her was a secret, while the other was a mess.

Marinette, for once, wanted to be selfish and stay there for a while, in Luka's arms. Not having to be the biggest person, not thinking about how to repair everything from people's and her mistakes. Not showing that the day was only the accumulation of bad things. Not having to deal with Fu's disappearance, or the imminent fight with Hawkmoth.

The man surely had a plan to make them fall, Chat Noir and her. If knowing that it was her fault that her mentor was certainly now into the enemy's claws wasn't enough, knowing that soon enough that enemy was going to show himself, threatening Fu was the final nail in the coffin. Tightening her hold on Luka like he was the only thing that kept her safe, she felt him doing the same, placing his head on hers.

Let her sleep, let her be here for a while, feeling safe and warm. She knew that soon, she had to go back to being Ladybug, one of Paris' heroes. The fear and dread creeping inside her head was two of many indications that they weren't done. Therefore, when she heard the familiar akuma attack ringtone, Marinette wasn't surprised. She reluctantly pushed gently back from Luka, trying to smile at him even if her face was a mess.

« Are you sure you are alright? » Luka whispered, looking from one of her eyes to to the other.

« Yeah... Thank you Luka, for everything. » Marinette whispered back. « I should go back to the bakery though. Don't want to worry my parents when an akuma is roaming around. »

« Do you want me to accompany you until there? »

« No no, it's fine. You should go back to somewhere where the akuma won't be near. Check if your mother and sister are ok. » The young hero sighed, knowing that she had to separate with Luka in order to transform. « Stay safe, Luka. » She mumbled before kissing his cheek.

Marinette walked away, not turning back. She needed to transform, maybe meeting with Chat Noir first to explain the situation. When she found the nearest street that she pinpointed as safe to transform, Tikki popped out of her pink purse. Only looking at the kwami's big blue eyes was enough to know what she wanted to say.

« I'm alright Tikki. We need to go fight that akuma. Tikki, Spots on. »

The transformation's light washed on her, revealing Ladybug at the place where Marinette was seconds ago. She took her yo-yo, throwing to take leverage for her jump on the nearby rooftop.

«... I'll be okay. Eventually. »

When she landed on the rooftop, she opened her yo-yo in order to find Chat Noir's localization after looking for information from the akuma alert. She needed to find him first. A few minutes later, she screamed his name to make him come to her, hidden behind some chimney on a roof. Chat Noir landed gracefully on the roof, approaching slowly.

« Two akumas during one day, Hawkmoth must be on fire. »

By the look of his face, she wasn't the mess that she thought she was. The suit erased the exhausted look, the trails of tears from earlier. Standing next to the boy wasn't the lost girl but the strong hero. In a way, she didn't know if it was a good thing or not. To make him worry when he shouldn't, or making him think that everything was okay when it was clearly not?

For years she stayed strong, showing to everyone that Ladybug was perfect, always saving the day. Even if she didn't like that people put her so high on a pedestal, it was needed. If not, Parisians would only feel fear.

Fear that nothing turned normal at the end.

Fear that someone could really die during an attack.

Fear that their superheroes were mere children at the end of the day.

So, Ladybug put her fists on her hips, straightened her back and spoke. She nearly cringed when she expected to hear her dried voice that cracked to every few words. Instead her voice was smooth and a bit high-pitch. Guess that everything went back to normal when she turned into Ladybug. At least, everything outside, not inside.

« It's more like Hawkmoth's planning something. Especially if Fu's missing. » Ladybug said, a frown on her face. « I'm sure that if we find one of them, we will find the other. Hawkmoth might be keeping the guardian close to him. »

« The guardian is missing ?! » Chat Noir shrieked. « What happened? »

At that, Ladybug seemed to deflate like a balloon. Her hands fell, before she crossed her arms in front of her body, her head bowing down in shame. Chat Noir didn't see his partner like this, looking so vulnerable since the first day they met. Just that made something crawl inside his body from head to toes. Something was wrong.

« It was my fault. » Ladybug started, never looking up to him. « I... I went to master Fu when I was still transformed during Love Eater. I should have been more careful. He's so much more vulnerable now that Hawkmoth and Mayura know that he's here, in Paris, with multiple miraculous. I'm the worst Ladybug ever! »

« What are you saying? Of course not! » Chat proclaimed. « Everybody can make mistakes, Ladybug. It's what we do after those mistakes that count. You learnt your lesson, you know what you can or can't do now. And you are going to move forward. I mean, we're just teenagers! Who didn't make mistakes during that time of their lives? »

« Yes... I guess you're right. I can't change what I've done but I can create my future, Paris' future. What we have to do now is to search Master Fu and save him. »

Ladybug said, hope and confidence started to come back slowly. Before Chat Noir couldn't do anything, she hugged him tight.

« Thank you Chat Noir. I don't know what I would be without you. »

« I'll always be there for you, Ladybug. » Chat Noir sighed, tightening his hold on her for a second before taking a step back, keeping his hands on her shoulders. « Now, let's find Master Fu and save him if he's in trouble. »

While Ladybug was thinking about plans that could work, trying to remember if there was anything that proved it was an akuma or Hawkmoth himself that attacked Master Fu, Chat Noir was looking around with his baton, zooming on elements when he thought he found something.

After a few minutes, an alert made both of them jump a little. After looking at each other, they took their mutual weapons in order to look at the new information. Before running away into a safe place, some people took pictures of a blue, purple and green forms at the Trocadéro, jumping in the air and fighting each other. After another picture, this one in a better quality, Mayura, Hawkmoth and an old man in green was proclaimed being in the famous area.

Just a look made the hero understand that the third party was Master Fu, transformed.

One look at Ladybug, and Chat Noir knew that she was starting to pin everything as her fault again. When finally she looked back at him, seeing his concerned gaze, Ladybug shook her head, trying to focus again. She was Ladybug! She has fought so many akumas before. And even if her heart broke a little a few hours ago, there were some serious matters to attend to now.

Maybe it would be a second Hero Day, with Master Fu added to the equation but they already win a battle like this one. They will go there and win, like they always do.

« You and I are going to save the day once again, Chat Noir. » Ladybug declared, smiling at her partner.

« I wouldn't like it any other way. » Chat Noir smirked, showing his fist to her. « You and me against the world? »

« You and me against the world, Chaton. » The red hero answered, bumping his first with hers.

With a new determination, the duo nodded to each other. Ladybug took the dragon miraculous from her yo-yo to put it on, transforming her to Dragon Bug. After that the heroes jumped from the roof they stood on before, going in the direction where their enemies awaited.

****

Hawkmoth didn't know if he should be pleased or not by how things turned out to be.

Sure, a betrayed hero was a hero that was distracted and easy to akumatized. He could have predicted that proposing the Bourgeois girl to willingly be his akuma was a bad idea. After all, the girl took pride in seeing what her acts and words did to others. She liked the fact that people reacted to each of her words. It was something to predict, her looking for being in control. Especially when she could take her enemies down. Prove that she was better than anybody else.

But something still left wrong. Maybe it was because he didn't have someone in the front line on his side anymore. Queen Bee was meant to be an akuma in the front row, while he kept an eye on the guardian with Mayura. Of course him being here meant that he needed to have an ace in his sleeve. Something to make all of Paris fear him and stop interrupting.

He was meant to be the final boss, after all. The one that you fought at the end, when every other enemy was out. Like during Hero Day, he had planned to have an akuma that could help him having multiple allies. Queen – No, Miracle Queen would have the power to control parisians, making them her slaves. Like this, she could have called for people to come here with her, creating a little army against Ladybug and Chat Noir.

But now, with Queen Bee uncontrolled by an akuma, that opportunity was gone.

Mayura was already weak, staying on the rooftop with him. She only had the energy to summon an amok, before she collapsed for two minutes. Then, she was only able to stand in the background, like a threat that was there for show.

As for the guardian, he was in a green ball, trying hard to stay strong against the amok. Hawkmoth could only smile while looking at the old man. How foolish of him, hoping that he could win against him. He only needed to wait a little longer and the old rag would break, along his protection.

What he needed now, was a plan to come back to the original strategy. Maybe someone could give him an infinite number of butterflies? No no, Natalie was out of the plate of chess for now and doing this would only be a repeat of Hero Day.

If Chloe Bourgeois wasn't his akuma, who was going to take that place? That Lila girl? No, not her. She may be a good spy in the school, someone that could try to prove her worth by creating the perfect scenario to akumatize people, a good willing paw to akumatized herself. However, she was starting to see herself more and more as something else than his paw.

He needed to do something in order to make her remember that she was nothing else but his little pet in a game that he needed to win. Maybe knowing that she was the second option to use for a final battle was going to shrank her ego, but he needed something more powerful to break her, Lila herself and her goals as well.

Hawkmoth didn't care if the prize to make her obey was Adrien. Emilie was more important than her male and younger copy. Having those miraculous was far more important for him. So Hawkmoth continued to plan.

A mind-controlled akuma that could make everyone in Paris at his mercy? No, Zombizou and Simonsays showed before that it could back-fire too much, especially for the final battle. He wasn't good at planning. It was Natalie's job and since she came into the frame, his akumas were better, stronger.

The mind-controlled akuma could be something interesting to use but if he went into that direction, Hawkmoth needed a way to control everything. He wouldn't let an akuma stop his plan because the mind-controlled power was too much of a risky card.

The wind started to blow in another direction, a disturbing noise from afar made Hawkmoth look up. Of course, those idiot reporters wanted the new scoop of the month. While he didn't care about the possibility that those inside this helicopter could be hurt, it was still a new piece to add on the chess board.

He could have just cut that piece of metal in two, making it crash and end the recording of this future fight, but a bunch of metal in flames and dead bodies will be more of a nuisance than anything else. He had to let them stay in the sky, recording everything. If he won, then everyone would know that their heroes lost. If he lost, he would just need to take care of not being chased down after the fight to keep his identity a secret.

Hawkmoth pulled out one of his butterflies out of his cane, letting it fly around. Closing his eyes, he started to look for someone weak enough to be controlled, and fast. He needed a specific feeling, to gain what he was looking for.

What he didn't think about though, was the fact that Ladybug would take the opportunity that he was focused on finding a target for his akuma to snatch the butterfly from him. When he opened his eyes onces again, it was to find those two pesky children not too far away. Ladybug did a short mouvement of her wrist to retrieve back her yo-yo which contained one of his akuma inside. The little pest only stared at him, not letting his akuma go, like she knew that he would call it back to him in order to have not one but two akumas back.

« You may have one of my akuma in your clutches, but it doesn't change anything, Ladybug. » Hawkmoth sneered before straightening again, his cane as a support in front of him. « Or a new power that will save you. In a few minutes, the old guardian won't have any strength to hold back his shield. »

Hawkmoth laughed, opening his arms wide in the air. He had to make them doubt themselves. But he needed to work with it, even if he didn't like the fact that _he_ was in the front line of the battle.

You know. Because he was a coward.

« If I don't take your miraculous myself then I will force that old man to reveal both of your identities. All thanks to Ladybug, who let me know where he was hiding since she was foolish enough to not transform back before searching for him! »

« He's trying to divide you! » Fu screamed, holding his shelter since he's life depended on it. « Don't listen to him! I didn't choose you randomly! Stay unified! »

« Ladybug and I don't fight against each other! » Chat answers while he looked at his partner. « We fight together! »

« Today is the day when you lose, Hawkmoth! » Dragon Bug added.

« Such a bunch of oblivious children! What are you going to do, against us! » Hawkmoth said, his rage visible with each word that came out of his mouth. « You are just two mere children. You won't stand a chance, when I have the Miracle Box with me! » He continued, feeling smug when he heard the gasp from Ladybug.

« They aren't alone, I'm here too! » A voice said before Queen Bee arrived, jumping from another adjacent rooftop. « It's three against one, Hawkmoth! We all know that the woman behind you is just here to be a weird purple plant in the background since she's too weak! »

Hawkmoth had to hide his smirk when he saw Queen Bee arriving. He let her explain how she apparently fooled him in order to take back the bee miraculous from him. After just one or two minutes, the trio took some defending poses, ready to fight. Hawkmoth put the Miraculous Box delicately on the rooftop to not let it near the heroes and to make him fight more easily.

« Let's get this over with. » Hawkmoth grumbled, jumping from his rooftop, his cane ready to strike.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I was writing the part where Hawkmoth was searching for a new akuma to use, I nearly used one of those weird OC akumas that I created as potential akumas to replace Miracle Queen. But I stopped before one of them was used. I still want to only use « canon characters » in this story. Not just a random girl/boy.  
> I really didn't like to write the end of the fight and what happened after it. And I think it shows. During the interrogation at the police station, I came back into my « Analysing behaviours » mode so it was easier to write.


	3. The final battle (part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of the final battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt like the battle would be too long in one chapter. So I cut it in two.
> 
> The last chapter might not be ready for quite some time. I’m not going to go into details, but I’ll have a lot to do irl soon, so chapter 6 might be posted after that period of time where I won’t be able to write much. We’ll see.

No one knew who was the first to run to their enemy. When everything seemed to settle down a little, Queen Bee was already on the rooftop, fighting the amock while Ladybug and Chat Noir was still in the public square.

Hawkmoth had already tried to attack Ladybug, the hero protecting herself from Hawkmoth's cane with her yo-yo. The red hero rolled away from another attack, Chat Noir taking her place while stopping an attack with his baton.

When Hawkmoth grumbled and tried to swing his cane again, his arm was stopped by the wire of Ladybug's yo-yo. Tugging on his arm to let himself free, the old man still saw Chat Noir approaching and punched him in the face. The cat hero, dazed, stubbled back a little, touching his face. Taking advantage of the fact that Ladybug was distracted and loosening her grap on him, Hawkmoth took the wire in his two hands. With a strong grip on it, he lifted the ladybug girl from the floor with a circular movement, throwing her on the other side. The yo-yo detached itself from his arm, falling down at his feet.

Chat Noir launched at him once again, only to be tossed far away like a ball in a baseball match. Somewhere deep down, Hawkmoth felt a sense of déjà vu when he swung his cane on Chat Noir's body. The boy coughed, trying to breathe again normally. 

Ladybug's cries went into deaf ears when Hawkmoth placed the blade of his cane on Chat Noir's neck where the suit didn't cover it, ready to sink the blade into the fresh. Chat Noir tried to hurl his baton into the villain's direction but Hawkmoth only pushed his foot further into the boy's abdomen before stopping the baton with the hand that didn't hold the cane.

With a harsh pull, Hawkmoth took the baton from Chat Noir's hand, throwing it far away from everybody in the area, letting it roll a little on the paved floor. After making sure that he had perfectly pinned down his enemy, Hawkmoth started to bend over Chat Noir's body to retrieve the black cat miraculous. Seeing this, the young boy called for his cataclysm with a raspy voice. Before Ladybug could come back on her feet and distract Hawkmoth, Queen Bee stopped fighting Mayura to wrap Ladybug into the wiring of her spinning top.

« Oh no you don't. » Queen Bee grumbled, tightening her hold on Ladybug.

« ...Queen Bee? » Ladybug asked, looking at the blonde who stood on the nearby rooftop, blinking. « What... What are you doing? Let me go! Hawkmoth's going to...! »

« Sorry Ladybug but I won't let you go there. »

The interaction made Hawkmoth pause into taking the ring from Chat Noir, laughing at Ladybug.

« Watching friendship and trust break is such a vision to see. » Hawkmoth mused, a light tone in his voice. « Tell me Ladybug, what is the most hurtful thing? Knowing that the girl that got so many times to redeem herself didn't take the chance to become a better person? Or maybe that you will not lose one but two allies today? Or the fact that it will be broadcast everywhere that you failed Paris? »

He laughed, before his voice got more commanding.

« Mayura, come here to hold back Chat Noir. I'm going to personally, for once, take care of that child that calls herself a hero. »

It took at least a suffocating minute for the villains to switch places. Chat Noir struggled with all his might to set himself free from Hawkmoth, then Mayura. However, even if the woman was less powerful than the butterfly villain because of her illness, she was still pinning the hero on the floor.

His struggle and harsh moves stopped when the peacock holder put her fan on his throat. For a second, Chat Noir thought that he was going to start to sneeze because of his allergy but it seemed that the feathers on the fan were synthetic ones.

« What are you going to do? Tickling me to death? » Chat joked, trying to make the situation lighter than it was.

« Oh you shouldn't worry about those feathers for now, Chat Noir. » Mayura smiled, before frowning and placing her fan nearer to Chat Noir's throat, the hedges of each part of the fan nicking the flesh that they touched.

« You should be more scared about the sharp edges. Don't try to move too much or she might cut your throat intentionally. » Hawkmoth added, before walking away from the hero.

Chat Noir could only stare at the villain's form that slowly walked near his partner. Even if he only saw Hawkmoth's back, he knew that once again, the older man had that creepy smile on his face. While everyone in the helicopter just above them started to panic, Queen Bee pushed the Miracle Box in the middle of the roof where she stood, just between the old guardian and the amock that still tried to break the green magic shell-ter.

Taking great care at keeping her hold on her weapon, Queen Bee jumped from her perch. While she summoned Venom, she walked slowly, creeping near Hawkmoth. The man himself didn't seem to care that the girl was near him, standing next to him, just a little behind him. His eyes were only focused on the young heroine at his feet, where he thought she should be.

« At last, what I wanted for so long will be mine. Help won't come, Ladybug. You are at my mercy. No guardian. No Miracle Box. No faithful allies. » Hawkmoth whispered, his low voice still ringing into Ladybug's ears on repeat. « My Queen, let's settle this. Take your revenge, take down your enemy! »

« It is my pleasure, Hawkmoth. »

Everything started to slow down. Chat Noir screamed Ladybug's name, the girl closing her eyes shut, waiting for the impact of the power-up punch from Queen Bee. Hawkmoth was smiling, staring at the body of his nemesis, screaming her fear just by looking at her body language. As for Mayura, she forced every muscle of her body to hold the cat hero down on the floor, the boy trying to get himself free once again.

Everyone forgot how to breathe for a second, and last thing they knew, Queen Bee's hand didn't have the form of a giant bee sting, her target already paralyzed. She loosen her hold on Ladybug, and clasped her spinning top back on her hip.

At this, Ladybug opened her eyes, blinking a few times. After clenching her hands twice, she looked at Queen Bee, then at Hawkmoth. The man was stuck in a strange pose, like a twisting version of the wax statue of the villain in the Grévin museum in Paris. If it was any other situation, Queen Bee would have laughed at Ladybug's face.

« You... Didn't use Venom on me? »

« Why would I? Of course I didn't! » Queen Bee said. She knew that her favorite hero was shocked for a good reason. She just pretended that she turned on her for petty reasons. But now, she could prove that she was on the right side. «You should take his miraculous now, though. Venom can only last 5 minutes after all. »

« Queen Bee! » Mayura exclaimed, making everyone turn to look at the villain's direction. « How could you turn on us! Hawkmoth gave you the bee miraculous back! »

« I wasn't on your side in the first place. » The blonde responded, making Mayura wince even more.

Chat Noir, using this distraction to his advantage, set himself free from Mayura's grip and ran to Ladybug, making sure that she was okay.

« Of course I would never ally myself with people like you. Who do you think I am? I didn't think that both of you would trust me and add me in your idiot plan, but I guess I am such a wonderful actress that you didn't even think twice before falling into that trap. » The bee heroine laughed.

Mayura swore under her breath, calling for her amok. Chat Noir hurled Ladybug up to her feet, the trio preparing themselves to fight once again. Master Fu, seeing that the amok was flying away to come back to its mistress, called back his shell-ter, falling on the floor. Taking back his breath, he looked around, before his eyes falled back on the Miracle Box, just a few feet away from him.

Grunting, he stood again, walking to take back the box. When he knew that no one on the battlefield was looking at him, he jumped away, running with all his strength. A few streets away, he detransformed, only leaving an old chinese man with a weird looking box in his hands in the dark alleyway.

« I let everything else in your hands, Ladybug. » Fu mumbled, looking at the end of the alley like he could see the battlefield from there. « I know that you will fix everything like you always do. »

With one last quick glance around him, Fu walked inside the shadows of the small street, in search of a new place to hide.

***

At the Trocadéro, Queen Bee was fighting Mayura while Chat Noir was holding back the amok. As for Ladybug, she was looking at her Lucky Charm, an extravagant sewing kit with a pair of scissors, two big fabric rolls and a box of sewing needles inside. She searched for a way to use it, her vision starting to highlight the brooch on Hawkmoth's chest, the man completely, the helicopter, then Mayura.

Understanding why the fabric was there, she unrolled one of them and covered Hawkmoth entirely, making sure that every part of him was hidden. Taking the pair of scissors with her, she put the rest of the fabric on her, covering herself and her foe with it. It was a little hard with the little light that could go inside the improvised tent. 

Nevertheless, Ladybug found the brooch on Hawkmoth's chest, ready to take it. But even if she pulled on it, the brooch couldn't be removed. Moreover, with a bit of search around the miraculous in order to know what stuck the brooch, Ladybug understood that a little fabric linked the brooch and the suit, like those thin material that made sure a shirt didn't fall from its hanger.

With a quick snap of the pair of scissors, the brooch was removed from Hawkmoth's body. In the process, a purple light almost blind Ladybug. The girl tried to look at the civilian self of her enemy without getting out of the tent. With just a glance at his hideous outfit, Ladybug already knew who it was.

In her intent to get away from the horrible person that stood too close for her liking, she almost made the fabric covering them fall. But no one needed to know. Not now anyway. She understood why it wasn't only the pair of scissors that came with the lucky charm.

If it was broadcast on tv that Gabriel Agreste was Hawkmoth, nothing could be controlled. People would come here, doing reckless things. The reveal of who was behind the villains' masks had to be controlled before it happened if it was possible. The police were needed in that situation, the heroes had to make sure that Parisians and especially the media didn't go too far.

It was one thing to take down the terrorist. And another to put his closed ones on a silver plate and give them to furious Parisians. Even if Ladybug could theorize about who Mayura was, now that she knew who was Hawkmoth, she didn't want people related to Gabriel to have the blame on them as well. Yes, Gabriel Agreste needed to pay for his crimes. But people that worked at the _Gabriel_ brand didn't deserve this. _Adrien_ didn't deserve this.

So, with the best care that she could mutter, the spotted hero slid away from inside the fabric tent. The butterfly brooch was then placed inside the yo-yo, which was used after that to make sure that Hawkmoth was hidden as well as captured with the fabric and yo-yo wrapped around him.

« Ladybug! Mayura is down! » Queen Bee shrieked, making the other girl look at her.

The fight seemed to have made them nearer to Hawkmoth's position than the beginning, since Mayura wanted to take her partner in crime with her before escaping. The villain was on the floor, breathing hard.

The troll on keeping the amoc alive took too much energy from Mayura, forcing her to let it vanish in order to stay focused while fighting. Alas, even without the drain of energy of keeping the amoc with her, Mayura still lost the moment Chat Noir started to attack as well. The boy took a wry pleasure to pin her down on the floor, the end of his baton pushing on the surface of Mayura's throat.

« Don't move too much until Ladybug takes your miraculous, Mayura. » Chat Noir sang with a sarcastic smile. « We wouldn't want you to be hurt, won't we? »

« Queen Bee, can you please take my yo-yo for a while? Hawkmoth's going to be able to move soon and I need to take the peacock brooch. » Ladybug asked, already pointing to the other fabric roll and Mayura.

« Of course Ladybug. » Queen Bee proclaimed, ready to hold tight Hawkmoth, not letting him get away now.

The blonde still stayed silent, not wanting to know how Ladybug could still be humble enough to not let the terrorist's identities become public.

The same motions were done in order to control Mayura, without revealing her identity. Chat Noir stayed near Mayura to make sure that she didn't try to escape, while the girls changed once again her place, Ladybug holding the yo-yo capturing Hawkmoth, Queen Bee returning to hold back Mayura.

Ladybug took the box of the kit from her Lucky Charm from the floor, making sure that everything was inside of it, except the pair of fabric rolls. In fear that the Lucky Charm gave back the miraculous to the villain while fixing everything, Ladybug knew that she couldn't use the cure. The battle didn't create too much damage, just a little mess here and there so it wasn't too important.

Who knew if by going back in time to cure everything like it was before the fight, the butterfly and peacock miraculous would go back to their holders as well. Besides, a part of the Lucky Charm was still used as a way to hide the villain's identities. Therefore, Ladybug knew that until the two adults were taken for, she couldn't do anything about her power.

It didn't take long for the police to come, since the journalists inside the helicopter were still recording the scene. The police officers took the duo of villains with them, making sure to arrest them properly. Only officer Raincomprix remained with his work partner.

They talked with the heroes for a while, making sure that each side understood the situation and what would happen next. A promise to be at a certain police station in ten minutes later, and Ladybug, Chat Noir and Queen Bee was at The Grand Palais's rooftop. Chat Noir, who only had a minute before his transformation dropped, ran to hide on another part of the roof to recharge. Feeling that some explanations were needed, Chloe looked at Ladybug, squaring her shoulders back.

« I know that it wasn't the best to pretend that I turned against you, Ladybug. » Chloe started, giving back the bee miraculous. Since she didn't want to say the word _sorry_ , she had to use another way, other words to describe what she felt. « But it was the only plan that I got. If I didn't pretend to be on his side, he wouldn't have given me the bee miraculous, or he would have just forced me to be his akuma. »

« … I know. It was hard for you, you were cornered. It's okay. The best thing is that Hawkmoth's reign of terror is done. » Ladybug smiled. However, even Chloe could read through it and see the exhaustion behind it.

« Are you still... Going to trust me with a miraculous? Am I going to be Queen Bee again? »

« Miraculous are only used for drastic events. It's not entirely me who has a say on who, where and when a miraculous is used. Since the threat is gone, miraculous should be retreated back into the shadows. Even I... » Ladybug trailed off, her smile turning apolagic and sad. « Even I don't know if I would be able to keep my miraculous. »

That statement made everybody silent, The fact that even Ladybug herself couldn't stay out, saving people was a shock for Chloe. If Ladybug and Chat Noir couldn't even exist, then what about her? What about Queen Bee? The miraculous team? Who is she going to look for now? What -

« I'm still shocked that it's over. » Chat Noir confessed, coming back from his hiding spot. « It's been two years that we fought Hawkmoth and now... He's in a police office, with Mayura, without their miraculous. » When the beeping sound of the earrings was heard, Chat Noir turned to look at his partner. « LB, you should recharge too. We need to go soon. »

Ladybug nodded, hiding away. For once, Tikki didn't ask if Marinette was okay and the girl was happy that those words didn't come out of the kwami's mouth. The duo stayed hidden in silence, until it was finally okay to come out again. The heroes promised that when everything was clear, and that they had every information needed, they would come back to explain what will come next for heroes in Paris, and talk to Chloe.

After a few jumps away from the hotel, Ladybug mentioned that she needed to give back the dragon, butterfly and peacock miraculous back to Master Fu. At first, Chat Noir sighed and was ready to stay on that roof, waiting for her to come back. The hand on his arm said otherwise.

« Of course I won't let you wait there for nothing. » Ladybug declared, her blue eyes mesmerizing her partner. « You're coming with me. And if Master said that the noodles aren't ready yet... » Something shined in her beautiful eyes, something mischievous. « Then let's just say that he just needs a new place to hide. »

They thought they needed to search all of Paris or use another Lucky Charm to find Fu, but in the end it wasn't needed. The old man used the park again as a hiding place. Maybe he was really hired all day for keeping the merry-go stand open. No matter the reason, stupid as it was or not, Ladybug knew where to go to give back the miraculous.

This time, she learned her lesson and came there as her civilian form. Of course, Chat Noir needed to stay in the shadows nearby, not looking at them but he already felt more included in the miraculous business.

Marinette acted like she wanted to buy something in the stand, paying discreetly with miraculous instead of money. To keep the charade, she then took tickets for the merry-go, before walking away.

Maybe she would use those tickets with Manon, the next time she babysitted her.

A few minutes later, Ladybug was back at Chat Noir's side, ready to go. On the way to the police office, between jumps and rolls on the rooftops, Chat Noir asked if they knew who was behind the villains' masks. At this, Ladybug stopped dead on her tract, making Chat Noir slow down as well.

« At first I didn't think I saw the right person. » Ladybug admitted, a frown on her face, voice so low only Chat Noir could hear. « But when I took care of Mayura, it just proved to me I was right in the first place. We did put him in the list of potential culprits. But him getting akumatized made me doubt that he could be Hawkmoth. »

A frown formed on Ladybug's face, and Chat Noir didn't need another hint to know that she was finished. She just needed to find the right words before continuing.

« When I think about it, it was almost like he knew he could be seen as a potential candidate for the identity of the butterfly holder. Like he knew that if I found the ancestral book, I could pinpoint who was Hawkmoth. The akumatization must have been a ploy to forget about the possibility. »

« Wait. The man that had the book... And got akumatized that day when you thought you found the identity of Hawkmoth... It's... Gabriel Agreste? » Chat Noir murmured, his eyes wide. « Wait a minute, my head hurts. »

Ladybug helped her partner sitting down, concerned about his reaction. Of course, he was already shocked the first time they talked about the possibility of the older Agreste being Hawkmoth, denying the facts. It was like only the idea was impossible, even if proofs were thrown into their faces.

However, now, it was real. She recognized him. And soon, Chat Noir was going to see the man himself, with his assistant, in the police office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading this so far! The next chapter would be about what happened in the police office.


	4. Bad karma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heroes and villains, all of them in the same room, in a police office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like the butterfly miraculous for a lot of reasons. And since there are a lot of things that I love about the Butterfly's power, yes, I'm going to love that miraculous. I like the peacock for those same reasons. As for the mouse miraculous, I like the stealth aspect of it.  
> In this timeline, Miracle Queen happened 2 years after the first akuma battle.

The rest of the route was silent, as they arrived at their destination only by muscle memory, both of their minds elsewhere. The police officers welcomed them with strained smiles that were also shot their way. The reality finally sunk in when the duo entered an interrogation room where Gabriel Agreste and Natalie Sanscœur sat on one side of a table, cuffed.

The moment Gabriel's cold and indifferent glare met Chat Noir's eyes, the cat boy did everything to contain the whimper that tried to get out of his throat. When the hero sat down on the other side of the table, near a duo of police men, the cameras turned on. Everything was recorded inside the room, from Natalie's stoic face, to the displeased face of Chat Noir, who didn't know how to react to this turn of events.

Once again, a police man recited the law and the villains' rights. Shortly after, a lawyer arrived to represent the team behind the Agreste name. And yet, everyone in that room knew that even the Agreste's lawyers team didn't have a chance in that situation. After an hour of talking, the police didn't get a lot from the cold man.

However, he didn't try to deny the facts, since the reveal was live, even if it was under a fabric roll. There was no way that the man that was Hawkmoth during the battle switched places with Gabriel on the way to the police station. The car ride was secured, with a separation between the passenger, the driver and their partner. They even separated the two villains in two different cars. When they arrived yet again at a dead end during the interrogation, one of the hero finally started to talk.

« Why would you even do this? » Chat Noir said, with a neutral expression on his face. « Why would the great Gabriel Agreste even start to terrorize Paris? You already have everything: the perfect work for you, the house, the money, the celebrity, the family- »

« No. I don't. » Gabriel interrupted, his eyes narrowing. « My family was ripped away from me years ago. Seeing my _wife_ happy, living with me, was ripped away from me. »

« Your family...? » Ladybug repeated, feeling that something was wrong with his wording. « Surrely, all of your family isn't gone. You have a son, right? What about him? »

The silence that occurred was the only answer. It was enough to understand the secret meaning behind it.

Humans are driven by three global elements: fame, reproduction, and money. For a cold man like Gabriel Agreste, fame and money were already a given, with his brand. The result of his love with his wife didn't seem to be important in his eyes. When Emilie fell into a coma, fame and money, in the form of the fashion brand, became the only thing valuable.

Adrien wasn't important for his father. Just another pawn, ready to be used in order to make the brand more interesting.

Maybe some people could see that man as a father who included his son into the family's work. Maybe at a time, Gabriel cared, even a little. However, when you believe the fact that, no matter what you did before, you can make everything right again with just a simple wish... _Everything_ can be a possibility to have access to that wish.

The fact that the older Agreste akumatized his own son, after tearing Adrien appart to make him weak, was enough to understand that Gabriel didn't care about the cost. The only thing that mattered was the result. Granting that wish, Ladybug mused, didn't even let the person control the consequences of the wish. A life for a life. Maybe Gabriel would have died for it. Maybe a random person in the world. Maybe someone she cared about or even herself. Maybe Adrien.

« If I am not mistaken... » A police man started, not even looking at the villains in front of him. If he did, he knew that his face would only show disgust, and professionalism was important. « … Madame Agreste was declared missing, around four or five years ago. Why would having two more miraculous would make her come back? »

« I do not want to make it public knowledge, officer. » Ladybug declared. «If this information needs to be said, it mustn't leak outside of this office. »

Her voice was stiff and dark, but when the man looked at her, he only saw kindness in her blue eyes.

« While having both the ladybug earrings and the black cat ring is already dangerous, using them both on the same person can be... Drastic. And with random consequences that can get hazardous. » Ladybug's eyes darkened, turning to look back at Gabriel. « Deadly, in some cases. We can't control fate, and some people think they can. I don't want information to get out and having people arm themselves or others because of selfish goals. »

« It isn't selfish. He... _We_ did it for good reasons. The goal behind it isn't a foolish one like you thought, child. » Natalie announced, voice clear and cold. « We did it to make the Agreste family back together, like it is meant to be. It wasn't just for Mister Agreste to have his _wife_ back, it was for Adrien to have his _mother_ back as well. »

« Pretty selfish to me. » Chat Noir grumbled, his hands tightening their holds on his elbows.

At first, Adrien tried to find something positive in this situation. Yes, his father was Hawkmoth. Yes, he was the man behind every akuma attack, terrorising Paris for years now. But he never thought that his father was horrible. Not in _that_ way. He knew that he wasn't the only one in this world with some cold parent, obsessed with their work. Even if he never saw his father running the brand, just designing here and there, he understood that the brand couldn't run by itself.

With the fact that Gabriel was an introvert, it was a plausible reason why he started to work at home at first. To do more work, without being too far from his family. With the disappearance of his wife, he started to stay even more in the mansion, secured in his shell. And that was _fine_ for Adrien. Even if he was always devastated when his father couldn't eat with him, or come to parent-teacher meetings, he understood. Father was _busy_.

There was a difference between being busy by _work_ to stay up float and having something new to give to the designers in the fashion brand, and being busy with _transforming into a villain_ to only give traumas and fear to Parisians.

Then again, when Adrien wanted to go to a private school, Gabriel stated that the world behind the walls of their house was dangerous. At first, Adrien believed that it was only the world of a worried father, that knew his innocent child couldn't stand a chance in this cruel world. Adrien wasn't that blind, Alya calling him _Sunshine_ was already a give away.

Being homeschooled made him more advanced in the school curriculum and yet so lacking in social clues. He could recite France's history by heart, solving difficult scientific exercises, fence to the point of competing against the new generation of a famous fencing family, talk different languages, know how to interact and act in general with paparazzis roaming around, in galas, in photoshoots.

However, going to school was sometimes like learning a new way to be around people his age. It was hard at first to understand Nino when he used a lot of that « teenager language » that his father didn't like. He didn't need to know how to escape fans or how to walz when he was with his friends. When he was with them, the world didn't seem that dangerous, like his father said.

His friends... Who got targeted by akumas. A lot. If it wasn't them directly who changed into akumas, it was their loved ones or people that they interacted with. But it was always related in a way to his classmates and him. As if...

… Hawkmoth was targuetting only people that Adrien knew, that Adrien was related to.

… His _father_ was targuetting, in all of Paris, of all France, only people that he was related to. 

  
  


If Gabriel cared, he would have at least done everything possible to make sure that his son wasn't near his akuma. If he cared about his family, he wouldn't put him in danger by deliberately choosing as his akumas people that was in his school, in proximity of him.

Was it... Was it a way to prove his point? To show that yes, the world was dangerous, that he needed to stay locked at home like he was used to? That the moment he tried to get a little freedom, that freedom would have the price of being in danger directly as his civilian self almost every time?

Now that he thought about it, that little freedom was already a way of threatening him. He let his friend ask for a birthday party, something that Gabriel didn't want to do? Letting twist this situation in his advantage to obtain an akuma and prove that it was a bad idea that didn't have to be asked for in the first place. He didn't follow a rule? Fine, let drop the fact that if he didn't do it, he couldn't go to school anymore.

With someone like this in his life, as his only role model, no wonder why he became what he was. Be-little himself became a mechanism for searching compliments and praise from people, since his father didn't even glance up at him if it wasn't for reprimanding him. Of course he would try anything to escape his room when the expectations, the atmosphere in the mansion was too much. A cold place, with a colder man that stayed in the past instead of living in the present.

« By searching a way to make your wife back to you, you only stayed in the past, obsessed with things that you couldn't change. While other things can be done to brightening the future. By looking at something forbidden, for good reasons no less, you forgot about things that were _there_ , with you. » Chat Noir said, a dark and sensitive tone behind his voice. « Losing someone can be hard, and no one asked you to go back to a normal life in the year of her disappearance. But you have to learn to let go, even if it's slow work to do so. »

Chat Noir's eyebrows raised, a hand lifted up like he just got an idea. Maybe he could twitch the situation in his advantage too, after all.

« Surrely, there was someone to talk to, to grief with? Don't you have a son? You could have healed together. Be there for each other. But apparently, you just decided that it was better to terrorise Paris in order to go back to a past where you were happy, no matter the consequences. Again... That's pretty selfish to me. »

« What do you know? » Gabriel snared, his eyes cold and demanding.

Adrien stopped himself to look at the floor in shame, mute by his own boldness to talk back to his father. However, he kept his grounds, staring at the man in front of him. No more. Adrien might be the perfect illusion of the doll shaped by Gabriel's hands, but Chat Noir...

Chat Noir was free. Unruled by high-class' expectations. Savior of Paris.

And right now, Chat Noir was confronting his arch nemesis. Not the son that dared to hope his father would be happy and compliment him since he followed what the man wanted.

« More than you seem to ever care about, _Gabriel_. » The boy snarled back, the name falling dead flat from his mouth.

After that, information flew from left to right, Gabriel Agreste starting a monologue about how children like them couldn't understand how his goal was pure in its core, how it was meant to be, to get back his lovely wife. With horror, he leaked too much in his angry rant, revealing where Emilie Agreste was, as well as his goal to take the miraculous box in order to make the heroes weaker.

At the end of his rant, Gabriel understood his mistake and abruptly closed his mouth shut. But it was already done and the police had every information needed to investigate the house. The two police men thanked the heroes for being here, promising to take care of the rest until the day of the judgement. When they were preparing to get out of the room, Gabriel's voice rang again, solemn.

« We all know that another Hawkmoth will rise in the future. This isn't the end. »

« That's something that you don't have to worry about. » An officer said in a matter of fact voice. « After all, the only future for both of you seems to be the case prison until you are just a bunch of bones. »

With that the heroes were gone, ready to come back to their homes. Marinette stayed in her fathers arms until he came back to work, to reassure herself that everything was okay for now, that her parents were safe. On the other hand, Adrien came back to the mansion. He prepared himself, pretending to be shocked when the police came. For the second time that day, Adrien went to a police station, this time in his civilian's clothes.

The more the police asked him questions, the more they understood that the boy didn't have anything linked with Hawkmoth. With how far and between he saw or worse, talked with his father, he was easy to pin Gabriel as a distant father that didn't want to have something related to his son except the name.

The boy, though, was on a mission when getting out of the mansion. When he proclaimed that he needed to take a bag full of his belongings before getting out, he didn't feel like he was lying. Of course, he needed some clothes and appropriate emergency stuff before the police took control of the mension. He just added to the list a very particular book from his father’s safe.

If he erased some weird pictures about heroes in his father's electrical desk, it was only a genuine mistake. He only wanted to save some designs and pictures that were inspired by his mother, but erased a file while doing so. It wasn't like he was used to touching that thing, since he was more used to being in front of his father, than looking at what he was designing.

Adrien had to do his best to not look at his mother's face, looming over him and staring at his back. The size of the painting in the office didn't help to make him forget why they were in that situation. Nor the fact that all this time he was wrong about his mother. She didn't leave him, quite the contrary.

She was just staying under his feet, in that terrifying lair, like a princess in a glass coffin. But unlike fairytales, she didn't wake up because of a true love kiss. Instead, he needed to bury her, while he believed he already did it so long ago the day the manor lost its warmth and life with her.

The book as well as the USB key with the copy of the book in it felt heavy in his bag. At the same time, it was like a burden was taken off his shoulder, while another was placed there instead. On one hand, no one, except his Lady, Fu and him knew that Gabriel Agreste had such sacred and unique possession related to the Guardian of the Miraculous. On the other hand, he had the new mission to make sure that this same possession came back in the right hands.

With a heavy heart he closed the door of Gabriel's office. He needed to give everything related to miraculous to Fu.

When he went outside, he hesitated to look back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One day, someone asked me what my top 3 miraculous was, that I would like to wear/have. I said butterfly, peacock, mouse. And that person said that they didn't know if they were surprised or not that I would like the villains' miraculous. And it's sad to see that the butterfly and peacock are always treated as the « bad miraculous ». If there is another villain in fan-fiction, it's the butterfly holder. And with the glimpse of the future in a ML episode, the butterfly miraculous is still used by a villain after Gabriel. It's not that the miraculous or Nooroo are bad guys. They are misused by someone. The butterfly and peacock were meant to be used for a greater cause. Too bad they got in the wrong hands.  
> Since we know that there would be a future villain with the butterfly miraculous, I'm still going to work around that.


	5. Bad day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 2 years have passed.  
> The outcome of Hawkmoth's and Mayura's fall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Why am I continuing this again? I’m still hoping that I will have some time to finish the last chapter in time for tomorrow but there is a high chance that I won’t.

Two years had passed since the start of Hawkmoth's terror on Paris, and Adrien was old enough to emancipate. With the money he got from his model work, he knew that he had some time before lacking in money. But until he was officially on his own, he had to live somewhere that the police could look for, until his father was judged.

Since the only family that he still had lived in London, he couldn't go there. Not that his aunt wasn't happy that she had the visit of his nephew, but he needed to stay in France until the end of the trail. The Gorilla, learning that Adrien was now alone, proposed to open his flat to Adrien. Even if he couldn't be hired by the young Agreste as his bodyguard anymore, he still wanted to protect and take care of his young charge.

However, no matter how sincere that proposition was, it was rejected, since the big man was too close to Agreste's case, and could be seen as a spy to control the young man. Adrien was still happy with the gesture, glad to have someone that saw how the Agreste household worked, and still was on his side.

So, Adrien accepted a deal with his aunt. She would be his official guardian, while he would live in a house in the peripheral of Paris that was a Graham's family's property. His aunt claimed that the house was empty anyways, and he was welcome to stay there until everything was settled.

Adrien's possessions arrived not a day after in the house that seemed perfect for the occasion. Even if it was too big for only him, it wasn't cold or too spacious like in the mansion. Therefore, in that new home, Adrien planned what had to come next.

His plans, as well as Marinette's, crashed into pieces when they woke up one day without their miraculous.

A letter, like in Feast, was the only thing that remained where their kwamis slept before. Master Fu, once again, thanked them in the letter, before stating that it was time for him to, once again, find a new place to hide in the shadows of a city. He thought that now that the Miraculous Temple was once again full of monks protecting miraculous, he needed to start a journey to go there again. To find a place that he knew should be safe, as well as a future guardian for his box.

In his letter to Marinette, he explained that he didn't want to burden two teenagers again, like he was forced to do back in the Temple during his young age.

While Adrien cried all day of the loss of Plagg, Marinette stared at the key that was with the letter. At first, like Adrien, she was devastated by the loss of her kwami. After crying and rubbing her earlobes, Marinette started to ask herself what she did wrong. Maybe one of her mistakes made Fu run away from them, from her.

She didn't have the chance to talk to Chat Noir or Chloe, to explain what happened. Deep inside her, she was angry of Master Fu, him who proclaimed that she was his apprentice, him who said that she was such a good Ladybug. However, that hate was pushed away. From the habit to hide her feelings or the hope to forgive one day her master, she didn't know.

Nevertheless, Marinette didn't want things to finish that way. Without proper goodbyes to her partner, to Paris. And if she learnt something from Tikki, that was that even if she doubted it sometimes, she could do something. Because she was Ladybug, with or without the mask. So with that in mind, she printed two letters, put them in envelopes with gloves on, and placed them in Cesaire's mail box as well as in today's letter for Chloe.

On one hand, in Alya's letter, she explained what happened during the last battle from her perspective, from the way Hawkmoth's and Mayura's cases were handled, to the fact that the miraculous of the butterfly and the peacock was retrieved back. Since she knew that Alya was going to post a picture of the letter, she didn't get into too much detail and only said that since their goal was accomplished, the ladybug and black cat miraculous were taken away from them. That their heroes were now officially retired. That even if she was sad to not have the possibility to do an official goodbye, she hoped that heroes weren't needed anymore, with how Paris already suffered these past few years.

The letter finished with a goodbye for Chat Noir. That no matter who he was, or where he was now, that he will be happy, hoping he was safe and sound. They didn't have the chance to see each other one last time but she wasn't going to forget that they got through together, the trust that she felt for him, the happiness that she felt to have him as her partner, and no one else.

Marinette didn't add it, but she knew that her kitty doubted himself too much for her liking. She wished that if he read this, he won't turn into a spiral of negativity. Unknown to her, the boy that was once Chat Noir had printed the picture posted in the Ladyblog and read her words when he needed his lady's words to cheer himself up.

It was decided that the day Hawkmoth was defeated was a day to remember that we can't lose hope, while the day the ladyblog posted Ladybug's letter was a day to remember every effort their heroes had to make in order to win. That even if they weren't here, they will always remember them.

The other letter, Chloe's, was a clarification about what happened after the duo of superheroes went away from the hotel. That her biggest fears became reality and that every miraculous was back in the shadows, where even Ladybug couldn't reach. No one could be a hero again, from every temporary hero, to the two main ones. That, like she said in her letter to the ladyblogger, she was sorry that she couldn't stop by to do an official announcement. Not without revealing her identity, not without saying too much.

Ladybug didn't need to have her civilian self praised for saving Paris. And in spite of the fact that neither of them could be heroes now, they needed to remember what it felt to be one and improve themselves slowly for a bright future ahead. With those two letters, Marinette left her rôle as a hero and future guardian of the miraculous behind her, to focus solely on her civilian life, her dreams for the future.

Until it wasn't.

One evening, just after the lunch rush in the bakery, Marinette came back into her bedroom, exhausted. Even though she wasn't Ladybug anymore for two years, she still had a lot on her plate.

Trying to find an appartment for her university years for herself in Paris was dumb, and would only cost her too much money. Therefore, she stayed in her family's house, her parents unbothered by her staying. Since her university was in the city and that Paris was well-functioning on transports, it was easy for her to travel from the bakery to the building where she worked. Her parents seemed to understand that with her work for the university, expectations from it, commissions from her online boutique as well as maintaining that website and herself, she didn't have much time left during the day. Unlike in her high-school's days, she couldn't afford to use too much of her time behind the cash register or near the oven in the bakery to save the money that could be used to pay one employee's paycheck.

If it wasn't one of her teachers that refused one of her designs and had to work on a new one, sometimes from scratch, it was someone in her website that added a new commission on her list. If it wasn't any of both of those things, it was a child that literally got thrown into her arms because someone couldn't take care of them for a few hours, or one of her friends asking her to move a little, taking a break with them. The proposition of a break varied, from a nice pick-nick, to a party, the later refused automatically. She was already on a tight schedule, she didn't need to find herself with a big headache in the morning when there was so much to do.

Sometimes she understood why Gabriel started to stay at home. Less people to interact with, less problems, more time for work. Alya told her once or twice already that if she continued into the path that she chose for a year now, she was going to be a workaholic hermit that only gets out of their house for major fashion shows. Let's add that big, red coffee machine that she dreamed to get for two weeks now and she might consider the idea.

After the final battle, everything turned bad. She lost a part of her when the earrings got taken away from her, she lost someone dearest to her with Chat Noir. For weeks then months, Marinette felt like a part of her world had crashed down into pieces and one by one she needed to rebuild that world with old and new pieces.

Some days were better than others, sometimes she thought everything could be fixed together. However, she knew that nothing could be the same when she didn't have both of her trusted partners by her side and a pair of earrings on her earlobes.

Moments could be harsh at first, when she saw those statues people built in homage of their heroes. She didn't know if she needed to feel proud of what they did, or feeling sad that it was also a reminder that her time as Ladybug was over. Don't get her wrong, she was happy that Paris didn't need their heroes because there was a villain around. But it still felt weird for her.

She would talk to herself in her room, expecting an answer from someone that wasn't here anymore. One time, she was embarrassed to say Tikki's name, asking for five more minutes in bed, when her mother tried to wake her up. She had to find an excuse, saying that someone in her dream was named that way. In a nutshell, her life since Hawkmoth was defeated was strange, to say the least.

And some reminders didn't help either. The trip in New York helped the class forget everything about Paris for a while. Marinette, Alya and Nino tried their best to cheer Adrien up, making him welcome in the group at any time. With an exhausted look, Marinette still had to explain to Alya that no, she didn't want her best friend to try to be a match-maker during the trip. They needed to talk a lot in the bus between the airport and the place they slept in but Alya reluctantly accepted the deal.

Nevertheless, while the class focused on something else than miraculous' related things, it didn't help Marinette at all. Seeing all those heroes everywhere, being able to help for every occasion, even for giving snacks for a party, was like a stab in the heart. The main hero team seemed to be surprised that the main duo, like them, couldn't be heroes anymore. Since her mind whispered to her that she couldn't leak any information about miraculous, Marinette decided to just say that since the threat was gone, the miraculous were taken away.

She didn't know how, but the information that heroes were children at the time got leaked. Marinette almost laughed at the irony of it all. The moment she was out of the country, an information about her old team of heroes was revealed.

Some Parisians weren't happy to see that it was children without people to train them in the battlefield that had to fight, while others were impressed that they wanted in their conditions. Hopefully, everything else seemed to work fine for everyone. No big threat over the city, no villain that transforms the streets of New York into a weird battlefield.

In the end of the trip, she even met the American guardian, who found her by searching miraculous energies. She explained to him some part of her story, making it more understandable why the energy that surrounded Marinette got weaker and weaker, the more she wasn't near a miraculous.

During that long discussion between Fu's former apprentice and the old guardian, Marinette learned how it was possible that guardians were now in the open. On her side, she explained that she felt a weird conexion with a necklace in the exhibition that she saw. The pull with that object was less important than the one she felt with the miraculous box but it was still something perturbating for her.

With the promise to look that up and to keep a way to contact each other, the two separated. When Marinette returned to Paris the next day, she felt lightened by talking with someone that could, by some extent, understand her. It had put a balm on the wound of seeing those heroes.

In addition to all her work, Marinette took some time for herself, mainly by working out. She knew that she wasn't Ladybug anymore, that she didn't need to keep shape, and yet it still felt good to do so. In general, running across Paris was a good way to keep herself level-up, stressing out after a hard week.

Sometimes Marinette looked at the rooftops, thinking about the time when she jumped from one to another. She tried to parkour, but it didn't feel the same. Not when you didn't have the suit on, or her truthful yo-yo ready to make her jump so high in the air. She had to stop herself from looking around when she was out, ready at any moment for an akuma to come crashing in the streets, screaming about their name and asking for their miraculous. When looking around, she knew that, like her, people were still on edge. Traumas and habits still lingering.

But everything was in the past. She had to move on.

So, it wasn't surprising that she didn't believe her eyes when she found that evening a very, very familiar box on her computer desk.

At first, Marinette stayed silent and immobile, staring at what was on her desk. A honk from a car outside woke up the girl from her stupor, making her launch herself to cradle the box with trembling hands.

Setting the note aside, she opened the box, revealing in a flash of light Tikki and the ladybug earrings. The kwami blinked a few times trying to understand where she was, only being greeted by the sight of her last charge.

« Marinette! » The kwami shreacked, flying into the young woman's cheek.

Time seemed to both slow down and go too fast at the same time, the two girls hugging each other, happy to finally be together again. They babbled for minutes, talking without really understanding the other or even themselves. When they stopped to hug each other it was with big smiles and shiny eyes. Then, Marinette's smile dropped, a frown taking its place instead.

« How... Why are you here, Tikki? I thought that I...That we couldn't- »

What happened to make Fu consider giving her – no – the ladybug miraculous back? Did... Something happened? Was he considering that he made a mistake and was giving her back what was hers for years?

Or was Fu in danger, giving back miraculous to every person that held a miraculous before? What if she didn't feel or heard about a new villain in town? Parisians would be once again in danger! What a hero _– former hero, her mind reminded her –_ she was if it was the case!

Did Fu want her to be his apprentice again, to make her the next guardian? Surely by now, he would understand that soon, he needed someone to pass his title to. He had a long life, but he wasn't immortal and needed someone to take care of the Miraculous Box after him.

But... Why now? She just finally started to feel like a normal girl again! But if she needed to be a guardian, did that mean that she had to become like Fu? She would need to go wherever Fu was, finish her training with him. Then with a fake name, she would travel in the world while protecting the Box, with no lover, no friends, no family. Even so, once again she was going to make a big mistake again, maybe going to prison because of that, and then -

« Marinette. » Tikki called, flying near her former holder's face to make her look at her before she went too deep into her negative spiral. « It's going to be okay. »

She needed to shake herself out of it. Questions first, then action. It wasn't the time to fall down that hole of creeping anxiety and what-if. She needed to process exactly what happened and what caused this new situation. She would have all the time in the world to celebrate with Tikki about their reunion after. At least if Fu didn't choose to take her earrings back for a third time.

« How... Why are you here? » Marinette asked, coughing to try to make her voice stop shaking.

« I was in the box for a long time. I don't know how much. The box almost makes it feel like time stopped. » The kwami started. « Once in a while, Wayzz would come inside the box to talk with us. Like always, Plagg seemed to sense chaos even before its peak. »

« What... Chaos? »

« Wayzz started to inform us that Master Fu started to have some difficulties. He was finally near Tibet and the Temple. But he couldn't come inside because of a magic shield made by the monks. Apparently, they put that protection back around the temple since the Temple came back after Feast. Like the potions, the existence of those shields are known to us, the kwamis, but the spell to create them would never be part of our knowledge. »

« Why Fu didn't get in? If it's a protection for outlookers, surely he could come inside. He's the guardian after all. Though it's the first time I hear about shields, I'm sure he could pass that obstacle since he was from the Temple.»

« About that... » Tikki looked to the side, her big blue eyes narrowing. « Fu didn't finish his training. That's why he never mentioned how to create protections. Or how a guardian would forget everything miraculous related if they give their mantle to someone else. After the Miraculous Temple was restored, the Order was back again. Master Fu might be the guardian of the Zodiac Miracle Box, but he's not the last guardian anymore. Nor the Great Guardian. Nevertheless, he wasn't seen as a guardian by the monk, just an apprentice at best, so the shield doesn't respond to him correctly. »

« What did he do then? » Marinette asked, while raising an eyebrow.

« He tried to find a way in, but couldn't. So Wayzz came back one day, explaining Fu's plan. He needed to find a candidate for Nooroo or Duusuu. Unlike Fu himself, their powers would easily phase through the shield, and that way Fu could contact someone in the Temple to let him through if the butterfly or feather merge with a monk's object. »

« … Tikki... Why do I feel like something bad happened? »

« Because something bad _did_ happen. » Tikki sighed, hating big explanations like those. That's why she always went straight to the point, while still giving the basic information when she got new holders. « Unlike when he did it with you and Chat Noir, he chose the wrong one. Wayzz told us he felt something was wrong with that girl but... Fu is stubborn. And he got blinded by that kindness that she seemed to show to him. »

Tikki floated to Marinette's desk, sitting on it. It was weird to not have her cookie jar near, like in the old times. It was just a tiny clue, and yet it was enough for Tikki to know that her absence did influence her dear holder.

She wasn't a big part of that girl's life anymore. But she was back. Maybe for a long time, if her instinct was right.

« Master Fu gave Nooroo to that girl, asking to help contact someone in the mountains. But she turned on him, and never came back to give the butterfly miraculous back. Poor Nooroo... Just coming back from being Hawkmoth's slave, and he is lost again after another mistake from Master. »

That seemed to be too much for Marinette, who slowly sat down on her chaise. All of her efforts, all of her fights, the final battle against Mayura and Hawkmoth... All, in a blink of an eye meant nothing. Because Nooroo wasn't safe anymore. The butterfly miraculous was still somewhere, with an unknown person that was greedy enough to keep a miraculous for themselves.

It was like coming back to the origins of her story as Ladybug. However, unlike the inexperienced and shy girl she was back then, the story changed a little. She might be rusty after years without getting inside her magic suit, but she still had experience under her belt.

The scenario itself was worse. She didn't just need to check for akumas in Paris, but in the whole world. Who knows what that stranger would do with the butterfly miraculous. To where they would use it, or if they would even use the brooch's power, Marinette had too many possibilities in mind. She couldn't even just look out for the word « akuma » used to describe something weird that happened in a forein country, since there was the chance that this stranger would give their power another name. She needed to lessen the squales.

« Tikki, did Wayzz see that person? Did Fu give you some sort of description? » She asked, hating the desperation that made her voice crack.

« We haven't talked with Master Fu since we left Paris at the time, Marinette. Wayzz needed to hide, every time that girl was around. To not show that there were other miraculous around, or to only talk about the problem at hand with the shield. I only know that it's a girl because Wayzz heard a female voice, and Fu mentioned that person with 'she'. »

« It's impossible. » The ladybug holder mustered, starting to walk in a frantic circle around her room. « We don't- We just know it's a girl! That recently was in Tibet. A lot of people could fit into this category! From those that live in the area, to those that traveled there. I can't- I need- »

Marinette abruptly stopped, startling Tikki that looked at her from her sitting position. One of her hands slowly moved to slightly touch her face, Marinette's posture being stiff for a few seconds. Her mind seemed to whirmill for a long time, lounging than hope shining in her eyes.

«... I need Chat Noir. » She whispered, like she feared that statement couldn't happen if she said it louder. « He needs to be there. »

Whipping around in a fast turn, Marinette rushed to her desk, looking at Tikki, her kwami's answer becoming the one thing that might change everything.

« He got Plagg back, right? »

« Of course. Balance is needed, and a ladybug without her black cat won't last long. Neither the opposite. »

She didn't know what cocktail of emotion swirled into her bones and mind. Elation, existent, longing, happiness... Everything seemed to mix together in a fire that made her wiggle in excitement.

She was going to see her kitty again. And this time, it wasn't to say goodbye, like she missed to do so correctly. It was to come back to fight crime, or at least doing their best to get the butterfly miraculous yet again.

« Let's see if the cat is outside. Let's do this Tikki! »

« You already know the magic words. » The kwami said with a small smile. « Ready when you are. »

It felt like those two years never happened.

« Tikki, spots on! »

She was one again, her civilian and hero persona living in harmony once again.

And she just needed her other half at her side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, yes I'm adding some sprinkles of personal ideas that aren't canon. When I saw that the Miracle Temple was back again, and was shown on TV no less, I thought that they needed a way to not make people go there to check for themselves. So shields it is. Maybe you can see it as an invisible shield in the form of a dome, that stops people from continuing to walk on the Temple's land.
> 
> I know that some people think that the Temple is empty of people after the Miracle Cure brought back the place. But since everything turned back to normal in dreadful akuma attacks, I think it's possible that the monks, and miraculous boxes in the building are back. If no one died permetantly after drowning during Syren (there must be some cases that couldn't be out on some higher roof and died that day), then it's not surprising that the cure revived those monks.
> 
> Then again, it's only my opinion, and I understand those that think the temple is empty. It could be interesting in some way if miraculous that were in the temple are scattered everywhere on earth, or to see the Temple as an empty husk from the past.


	6. Bad memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They finally reunited. And more lore because I love adding lore everywhere.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter so thank you all for reading this fic until the end! I hope you liked it. It was an old fic that stayed in my file for a while. With everything that happened recently I never really had the courage or the time to finish it. Until now! It meant to be in another of my stories but since the chapter was too long, I decided to put it in a different fic, like a more detailed story instead.  
> In this chapter, I tried to give some explanation about why there weren't that many people around in the streets in the show. I went to Paris a few times before, and watched some news about the city, and this place has a lot of people walking around, especially in touristics places.

Marinette didn't know what she felt when the magic curled like a warm blanket around her. Just looking at the light in her room shining on the hexagon textile made her smile. It felt so far and so soon since she was in that suit. Battles over battles and struggles came back into her mind and she tried her best to hold back the tears.

With shaking fingers, Marinette – no Ladybug – took her yo-yo hold near her hip. Opening it, she still needed to check the yo-yo before finding the application on it that she desperately wanted to use. Clicking on the right button, a map opened. Looking at it, she crossed her fingers, hoping that she won’t see the black dot appearing for the first time, out of nowhere. 

After all, she didn’t want to find where he could transform in Paris, and start to mindlessly try to link things to his civilian self. Of all things, she didn’t want to find some glimpse of her partner’s life and identity. 

With that in mind, she widened the map to see more of Paris on the application. Her luck might have awoken after two years with Tikki by her side, since what she was hoping to see was there. The green and dark grey gps symbol was moving around Paris like a fly trying to find the exit of a closed room.

Even if Ladybug knew that her kitty was the excited one, ready to go out as fast as he could as his alter-ego even outside of patrols and akumas fights, she still let out a gasp of surprise.

Chat Noir was there.

He was outside, transformed.

Going around Paris after two years. Maybe looking for her too.

And oh, she didn't want to make him wait any longer.

Ladybug rushed at her balcony, opening the trap door in a haste. She almost laughed at the irony of it all. Here she was again, like a rookie, trying to jauge her range while using her weapon, that she also used as a type of transportation. And yet, unlike the first time when she could only feel fear and incertitude in her veins, this time she couldn't wait to feel the air hitting her face while she jumped on rooftops.

After tugging on some other building with her yo-yo, she was out in the air, containing her scream to not make anyone realise that she just came from the bakery. Instead, Ladybug waited a block of running and flying to start to stop holding her joy. Her jumps and throws were a little sloppy and awkwards without proper training for a while, but she knew that after a few training sessions – maybe with Chat Noir – she would be ready again.

Ladybug stopped at one of their old favourite spots, the number ND8 since the area around Notre-Dame contained ten spots for meetings or rapid transformations. She could hear some Parisians screaming her name in shock during her travel and even know. Checking again her GPS in her yo-yo, she didn't even had time to check her partner's location, before she heard a voice she hadn't heard for too long.

« My... Lady? » A small, incertain voice murmured.

She didn't know if it was because they trained themselves to recognize and focus on each other's voice during battles, or the fact that everything around them seemed to become silent, but she heard his small voice like he was murmuring in her hair.

Turning around slowly, she blinked rapidly when looking at a shadow figure from her past. While she didn't grow too much in two years, he had gone taller. Even if some of his traits were more defined with age, and he had a little more green on his suit, she still saw her kitty with his bell, cat ears and tails. His big green eyes seemed misty with tears while looking at her with awe. If she had the possibility to see her at that moment, she would have believed that the same expression as his was on her face.

« K-Kitty. » She murmured back.

They didn't know who moved first. One moment, they were on the two opposite sides of the roof and the next they were running, hitting each other's chest in a hurried hug. The next second, Ladybug felt her feet leaving the ground, spinning around with Chat Noir that held her with his bare strength close to him. They laughed so loud it seemed that their laugh could be heard all around Paris.

They were finally back together. After that goodbye that wasn't one, after their miraculous were taken from them, only to come back when a new threat was roaming somewhere into the unknown.

And no matter what, they didn't want to move or change. They were there, finally coming back, finally being partners saving their city together.

Still holding the small bug in his arms after putting her back on the tiles of the roof, he took her cheeks in his hands with care, before peppering her faces with kisses.

« Chat! S-Stop! » Ladybug said, choking on her own laughter.

« Never! » He jokingly announced, kissing her forehead one last time before spinning her around a second time in a weird dance where her feet still floated around with each mouvement.

When they stopped laughing and put some distance between them, Chat Noir's hands came back to cup Ladybug's face with reverence, like he held the most precious thing in the world between his clad fingertips and sharp claws.

« I thought I wouldn't see you again, Bug. » Chat Noir murmured, more somber than a few minutes before. His eyes were misty again, shining with longuing and sorrow.

« Me too Kitty, me too. » Ladybug murmured back, before taking his hands to detach them from her face only to hold them between them. « After Master took our miraculous I felt like... I couldn't even say goodbye to you. »

« Yeah... » He sighed, removing his hold on her hands in order to give her a side-hug. « Not even a last first pump to celebrate our victory, not even one of my pawsome puns, nothing. » At her snorts, he couldn't stop smiling. « Just a note saying that now that the threat isn't here the miraculous are coming back in the shadows, bla bla bla. »

« Speaking of letters... Did you see mine? »

« Of course I did. » He said in a soothing voice, putting his hands on her shoulders. Her voice must have failed her, and shown her insecurity and fear, if he used that voice.

« I'm glad. I thought that it wouldn't reach you, or that you thought it was a fraud. I couldn't give you a letter for obvious identity reasons, and at that time, I would even accept to hear you babble cat and bug puns, if it meant that I could say goodbye. »

« Guess we need to remedy this by  _ more _ puns. »

« No! » Ladybug laughed, hitting his chest with the back of her hand. « No more puns than usual! »

« Oh yes. You don't know I felt like I could combust with the lack of audience to hear my puns. Besides now you can't say that it's not the time for this, since we don't need to fight » His smile vanished when seeing her confused face. « Right? »

« He didn't say anything to you? »

« Well I... » Chat Noir laughed awkwardly, rubbing his neck with his right hand. « Kind of rushed to transform after checking that it was really happening and I could be Chat Noir again? »

If the situation wasn't serious, and that he didn't feel like he missed a lot of information, Chat Noir would have laughed at Ladybug's deadpanned face, making him sure that he knew he, indeed, needed to obtain some crucial information from his kwami. And yet, deep inside his mind Chat Noir knew that even if he  _ did _ wait, his little gremlin wouldn't have even said half of what he needed to know, just to watch the chaos that he could gain from it.

« Come on Chat, let's go talk to a more private spot than this one. I heard some Parisians while coming here and it's some crucial information about why we obtained our miraculous again out of the blue. » The ladybug holder explained, a small smile forming on her face. « Still, it's good to be back. »

« It's good to see you again. » Chat Noir added, smiling even wider when he saw his partner showing her fist to him. With excitement, he bumped into it, memories flashing in front of his mind.

« Pound it. » They said in unison, before taking their weapons in their hands, flying in sync in the same direction, looking for a new private spot to use.

They had a lot to talk about.

******

The next days were frantic. Apparently, some people took pictures of the two heroes roaming around. A few videos were on social media, showing them screaming in joy while flying, others when people screamed their names, pointing at rooftops. Journals on paper and on the internet used old and new pictures, with mixed feelings about the news. Some people were happy to see their heroes back again, others were glad that some theories that speculated that Ladybug and Chat Noir had passed away after their last fight weren't true. On the other hand, some people were asking why their heroes happened to come back now, especially after years without showing themselves.

And then, some video showing when they finally meet again was out for the world to see. With some good enough quality, it wasn't hard to understand what they were saying.

At that, come Parisians feared the worst. If Chat Noir needed to know some reasons why they were out again from Ladybug, then it might mean that another threat was around. Preparing themselves, some people living in France or those who lived in Paris during Hawkmoth's and Mayura's reign of terror started to think about what would happen next. Some theorized that another Hawkmoth might come again, or maybe another threat using a miraculous. For some Parisians, their heroes wouldn't have been back, if it wasn't something miraculous related. After all, other things that weren't the consequence of some miraculous were judged and fought by the police, especially during the last two years.

People that were now finally trying to feel again like any other French, started to prepare themselves physically and mentally to come back to a time where everyone needed to push their negative emotions deep inside them. After all, they didn't even think about the possibility that it could be another miraculous that could be misused. They only knew about a butterfly and peacock villains and by the look of it, it wasn't over. One villain was enough to link villainess with those miraculous. Two times the same miraculous, with the same fight against controlling their own emotions? Everyone knew that it could only bring negativity. No one could believe that those two miraculous were created for the greater good in the first place, with the experience they had with them.

Without the power of the butterfly miraculous around, to disrupt communication between Paris and the world, the existence of Ladybug, Chat Noir, and old temporary heroes from the past were known everywhere. The mayor was glad that it would give some publicity for his town, but he knew that he needed to use that publicity, and fast, before the next villain. Mayor Bourgeois might not know if a new villain would really appear in Paris, and yet he knew very well the economic consequences of a villain, using emotions to create living puppets from his citizens, in his city.

It wasn't a surprise, during the last terrorists's terror, that Paris didn't have a lot of people around, outside in the streets. People were often inside their homes, fearing to express anything if they were doing something elsewhere. If they weren't there, they were in safe areas, built after the first year of akumas around. Touristics places were vacant of people around, taking pictures since after a while, tourists were scared or disappointed of their trip in Paris, and never went back, informing people to not go to the capital.

Homeschooling, or transferring their children to schools outside of Paris perimeter were usual options from parents at that time. Akumas could stop studies, and children's education, making it harder for them. Therefore, if people could work, or study at home, schools, universities and companies accepted to have people working at home, instead of adding the stress – and maybe akumatization or lateness before a fight going on – to their workers and students.

It was, behind great fights and reports on them, a mental and economic crisis. Where no one wanted to be outside, in fear of their own feelings, or being at the wrong place at the wrong time if an akuma occurred.

And the mayor knew this very well. So for the two last years, he did everything possible to gain money back. To make his city good again. For his pockets, yes, but in general as well. Even if luck couldn't be on his side, and another... Hawkmoth would be around soon, he would still use that two years boost, to not fall as deep as the last time.

******

The two heroes decided to choose their bigger, covered, hiding spots to create different bases, where they would gather information, and talk about possibilities about the new threat. Multiple places meant that even if one was compromised, others won't, and it would be better to not have a small number of places where akumas could wait for surprised attacks.

Their enemy was far beyond what they needed to fight when it was Hawkmoth. They didn't have a general localization, nor a way to determine who they were. Everything could happen. To someone that would never use the miraculous and stay hidden somewhere around the globe, to a villain attacking a different country that wasn't used to a terrorist using negative emotions for their own goal.

Nevertheless, they could guess that at one time or another, the butterfly holder would be out again. If the person kept the brooch, using it to help Fu, before running away to keep their new power, there were high chances that the butterfly miraculous would be misused yet again.

The duo could only hope to catch some information on mondial and nationals news, looking for something that didn't feel natural in the world. Patrols were often with only one hero, with their conterpart's kwami with them. Like this, at least a kwami, while the others were blocked by the transformation, would warn them if they felt that the brooch was activated, even if it was a weak feeling due to the distance with other parts of the world.

They crossed their fingers to have some news about this new holder. But they didn't think that news would be related to Fu, and created such an event.

That night, they decided to meet up again to check about what they gathered that week about the new butterfly holder. Chat Noir was already there, checking some information on his baton. He had meticulously checked what recently happened in Tibet. Nothing special, except some villagers in the mountains claiming that they saw a weird light coming from a house, illuminating the village for a few minutes, before stopping. After checking the house, villagers encountered an old amnesic man living there. Some notes left around help to know who the man was, since he seemed to have lost his memory, without even knowing since when.

It didn't follow the description of the new holder they searched, but Chat Noir had still taken some notes about it to report.

Chat Noir turned his head to the direction of the telltale sound of Ladybug's foot on the rooftop, preparing to come inside the little closed space on top of the roof. What he didn't expect to see, however, was a distressed Ladybug, holding in her arm some... Weird round shaped form, covered by a ladybug design.

Running to her, and ushering her in the space, he helped her put the weird shere on the table in the center of the place. The door was still open, to reassure Chat Noir that they weren't locked inside the small space. But the cat hero was more focused on his partner than his fear of knowing he was stuck inside their base.

« Bug, what's going on? » He asked, trying his best to stay calm in order to not make his partner panic even more. « What is that? »

« The Miracle Box. »

« ...What? »

« It's the Miracle Box, Chat Noir. » Ladybug whispered, looking deep into his eyes. It felt like reality would break, if she said it louder. « I-I was preparing myself to come here, and just after I transformed, a bright light blind me. The Box appeared out of nowhere in front of me in that... Weird egg shape. »

« Wait. The... It's the Miraculous Box? But I thought it was in a different form, when it was with Fu. »

« Maybe it changed shape when it came to me? That's not the most important thing. » She groaned, messaging her forehead, a headache coming. « I opened the Box, Chat. To know what's going on. »

As if he was called, Wayzz flew out of one of Ladybug's pigtails, bowing in front of Chat Noir.

« It's a pleasure to see you again, Chat Noir. »

« Uh... Me too. »

« I have, however, needed to announce bad news. The fake aid had struck again, in Tibet. After a few days without news from them, they had returned to Master Fu. They asked for more miraculous and when the master refused, they started to attack him with an akuma and themselves. He was cornered, so he gave up his mantle to Ladybug. »

« That means that you're...The guardian now? » Chat Noir blinked, trying to process everything.

« Yes, and I guess that since I wasn't in the same place as him, the Miracle Box teleported here. I’m still worried about Master. Since every miraculous from the box, except ours and the butterfly arrived here, we don’t know what happened to him, after the Box came here.»

« How were you able to be here too buddy, if you were with Fu? » Chat Noir asked, looking at the floating turtle kwami.

« Just before he announced that he gave up his title, he renounced me as his kwami. I was in the Miraculous Box with the others, when Ladybug summoned me. » Wayzz replied, continuing with a sad smile after looking at the duo’s reaction. « Sadly, I’m afraid that it isn’t the first time that he did this, when a threat was running after him. »

An heavy silence loomed over them, while the heroes mulled over the whole situation. 

« However… » Wayzz added, making the others turn to look at him again. « I might know a little about what might have happened, after the Box came to its new owner. After renouncing being a guardian, the magic from the box erases everything related to it automatically, making the person lose their memories. It is, in some sort, the last attempt to keep miraculous as a secret of society. »

« You… Knew this, when you started to train to be the next guardian? » Chat Noir gaped as his partner, not knowing if it could be in rage, in fear or in awe in front of this girl, that was ready to lose everything, even her memory to save-

« No, I didn’t know. » Ladybug frowned, stopping his train of thought. Maybe rage and fear for her future and protection was a good mix, after all. « Tikki told me when I had her back. Apparently, he never thought it was something to mention to me, when I was his apprentice. Who knows what would have happened, if he needed to give me the mantle years ago, when Hawkmoth was still here to threaten him. »

« Wait, LB. » He said, his eyes wide open, fidgeting with his baton. « A bright light, like when that egg arrived, something in Tibet near the mountains, an old amnesic man… I saw an article about this! »

After reading what Chat Noir had found on his baton, they decided that it was Fu, or at least it seemed to be the case. They couldn’t do much about the old guardian, since he would only see strangers in front of him, if they try to find him. However, if Ladybug really needed to be the next Guardian, she needed to go back to the Temple. After all, it might be necessary that she was trained properly, and get enough information from the grimoire, before they fight the new threat. 

During the same week, they used the horse miraculous to go directly inside the Miraculous Temple. While they wouldn’t have been able to go there if they arrived outside of the barrier, the horse kwami knew the place, and could directly teleport them out of any transformation. If some portals stayed open in their hiding base, they would just need to check them by looking quickly on the other part of the portal, before it shut down. 

To say that the meeting with the monks wasn’t what they expected would only summarize their experience at the Temple. While they were grateful of what they did during the time they were aways from this realm, the monks were… Traditionals. 

After hearing about what happened during the last battle against Hawkmoth and Mayura, as well as Fu’s fate, the first thing they said was to explain they did feel a box near the Temple’s protection, but the feeling disappeared before they could go there to check. Ladybug asked if the new guardian of the Chinese zodiac Box could be trained in the Temple, before trying to find the last miraculous missing from the box. At this, the Great Guardian turned to Chat Noir, smiling.

« You must be the new guardian and Fu's apprentice. Worry not, young guardian, we will ensure that the miraculous box will be safe here for now on. You must understand, you never completely finished your apprenticeship, like Fu before you. And one of our experienced monks will take care of everything for now on. Destruction isn't meant to hold the box. »

The duo only blinked at each other, before trying to stop this misunderstanding before it went too far. However, the fact that a woman, untrained no less in the Temple, wanted to be an equal as a monk from the Order was impossible in their eyes. Kaalki tried to be on their young guardian’s side, claiming that she was famous and interesting enough to be their protector, but those facts fell on deaf ears. 

A fight, ending by the Parisians' heroes teleporting away, made them arrive back in Paris with battle breaths, trying to process what happened. 

Chat Noir needed to calm down and reassure a panicking Ladybug, her words only being babbled or rushed sounds, even for him. It was the first time he saw her so frantic, but he understood why she would be in that state. 

They knew that at least one of the monks was going to search for them, and would look into a massive, reunited miraculous power in Paris to know where the Box was. Although they couldn’t teleport in Paris with the horse miraculous, since the heroes had it, they still needed to prepare themselves. 

« Won’t they have a similar miraculous with them? » Chat Noir questionned, unsure. 

« Maybe something that would help to transport them, but not exactly something that links the space-time continuum and portals. » Ladybug mulled over, frowning but still less anxious than before. 

She sometimes forgot that her partner didn’t know much about miraculous. And she wanted to share that knowledge now that Fu's mention of noodles not being ready could only be a small voice in her head. After all, she didn’t have to see him frown at her sadly when she asked about the balance of knowledge, and responsibilities between Chat Noir and her.

« You see, miraculous work in pairs. Even more so for miraculous from Fu-  _ my _ box. » She added, looking at the egg in the middle of the table next to them. When touching it, the black spots illuminated in different colours, depending on the miraculous that were inside of it, like a weird disco ball. « It’s like the yin and yang balance that we have, between the ladybug and black cat miraculous. A zodiac sign is linked to one part: yin or yang. To counterpart each other, a ying zodiac miraculous is similar to a yang one. »

« So we already have a similar miraculous, and won’t have to fight someone that has some sort of link with the horse miraculous? »

« Exactly. Master Fu wasn’t sure about it, but I concluded some things. Even if one of the two in the duo might be a little weaker than the other because of the impact between yin and yang, they are still pairs in the box.» Ladybug explained, before her voice became more teaseful. « Tell me, Chat: what miraculous would be the horse’s partner if we are talking about powers?»

« Uh.The… Rabbit miraculous? Since it also got portals and it’s related to traveling somewhere else? »

To her approval nod, Chat Noir seemed to brighten like the sun. With a quick message to his baton with her yo-yo, Ladybug sent him a list of miraculous, their powers, the name of every kwamis as well as every theorized pair. At this, Chat Noir already looked shocked, and overwhelmed with all that new information. He forgot how he regretted not being added to all those moments between Ladybug and Fu. But the future seemed bright, while being the « unofficial and not potential amnesic co-guardian », like Ladybug remarked with a grin. 

They talked a little about powers and phrases to activate those said powers, before they came back to the new problem added to their list. Ladybug explained that every miraculous has some energy coming out of them. 

It was how Fu stayed in Paris after having some feeling that the lost miraculous were around. 

It was how kwamis could feel that some miraculous were activating, with good or bad intent. 

Or how she felt something was wrong with an object in New York and warned the country’s guardian. 

However, unlike the monks that seemed to know perfectly how to detect that energy, Ladybug didn’t know much about it. She hoped that she could help during their research of the butterfly brooch but she was only the apprentice of a man that didn’t go beyond being a young apprentice as well. 

It would be easier for a member of the Order to feel the pure energy of a single miraculous if they came to France. The fact that they needed to find a few miraculous, all gathered at the same place, in the same box, would only make the quest easier. Therefore, they needed some protection around the Miracle Box to make it harder to detect that energy.

Protections like the one around the Temple was out of option, since Ladybug wasn’t trained to create them. 

« My yo-yo lowered down the energy of the horse miraculous when it was inside of it, during Startrain. But to put the all Box inside… »

At her words, Chat Noir turned to the source of their diligma. He delicately held it, before touching each spot on it. They opened, revealing little drawers where rested miraculous. 

« LB, can’t you just… Take each of those compartments, and put them inside your yo-yo? Even if you won’t be able to access to miraculous if you aren’t transformed, it would at least be more secure than having a big black and red egg wherever you live. »

If the situation wasn’t serious, Ladybug would have laughed at both of them, stuffing a little yo-yo with a big box cut in little cylinders that each contained a miraculous. Alas, magic worked strangely, and when they finished their task, the yo-yo’s little portal inside of it shined with the white circle of the Miracle Box. 

« Now, if only we had the grimoire… I remember the essentials for potions, but I might need the grimoire in case we need to heal our kwamis or if we are dealing with a broken miraculous. » Ladybug sighed. 

« About that… I might still have a digital copy of it? » Chat Noir murmured, rubbing his neck awkwardly. At his partner’s stare, he elaborated. « I… I checked Agreste's manor for the grimoire to give it back to Fu. I found it, as well as a digital version of it on Gabriel's desktop. When I went to Fu, he didn’t even let me give him the USB key, before going away, saying he couldn’t risk being seen out in the open with a hero. » 

« Chat Noir... » Ladybug whispered, seeing his sad face looking back at her. « In a sad way, we can use this outcome at our advantage. We have the grimoire, at least a version of it. I might need to work on learning how to translate it fully, since Fu only did a part of it. But I’m glad that we can still work with this. Thank you for telling me. »

« Of course Ladybug.» He said with a little sad smile. « Though, we might report that meeting another time. We are both exhausted because of what happened in the temple. We will discuss the rest about finding the brooch another time if it is alright with you. »

A last pound it, and they parted in two different ways, running to their homes in the dead of the night. They hoped that soon they would have enough evidence to start to find the final lost miraculous from the box. 

********

Apparently, they didn’t need to find too much information, since the new holder went to them. 

The news of heroes coming back to Paris might have been more important than they thought, if the butterfly holder came to the city to look for them. The first battle gave a sense of déjà-vu from the two heroes, when they had to fight an akuma that proclaimed to have a message from the new villain. The night of that battle when they reunited in a base, they understood a few things. 

The villain knew, like Gabriel Agreste about the wish since they wanted specifically both of their miraculous. 

They knew that Ladybug was the new guardian, since this new threat was with Fu when he renounced his title as guardian. After all, the old man had to name someone to give the mantle during his announcement. The Miracle Box only appeared when Marinette transformed into Ladybug and this information reassured the ladybug holder, even a little. At least, she didn’t need to worry about everyone that she met as a civilian. 

Nevertheless, unlike their original first akuma battle, they had some disadvantages, while getting new assets in place. Even after two years, the trust between the duo of superheroes and the police was still strong, or with some citizens like Nadja Chamack’s crew that were often added into their plans to discover Hawkmoth’s identity. 

« Do you think that we need temporary heroes? » Chat Noir asked, sitting on the floor of their little base. That night they were in his favourite, filled with blankets and two big cushions for some deserved naps if needed. « Even for a first fight it was already more difficult than Stoneheart. Or maybe I’m just not accustomed to using my claws anymore. »

« No, the fight was definitely harder than the first one with Hawkmoth. » Ladybug frowned, her hands on her hips. « Even if we don’t make them fight, you’re right, we might need some temporary heroes. To at least train some people in case something happens. »

« Do you already have some people in mind? » He inquired, raising an eyebrow. 

A vision of yellow and black, as well as one in blue and white came in mind, making her smile. 

« I do. »

They might need to train them like the others before, but if they could do it before, they could now as well. Besides, those two showed with the two years that passed that they deserved their miraculous. 

Nevertheless, no matter who helped them, or what villain they were against, she knew that they could win. They won against two adults, they could fight again. Ladybug and Chat Noir promised years ago to protect their city and they would do it again.

Together, against everyone if needed. 

Sending a grin to her partner that he responded with a grin of his own, they both knew that it might take some time and effort, but the butterfly miraculous would be back in the box one day or another.

They would make sure of it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...And then another chapter of their story happens, coming back with something canon with the new Hawkmoth. I wanted to link it to canon in the end, since we know that there is a second villain with that akuma from the future, and the first appearance of an active holder of the rabbit miraculous.
> 
> As for why it's even possible that Fu gave the gardmenship that way, I personally thought it could be something that could happen. Some sort of possibility. After all, in Miracle Queen, Ladybug didn't look like she was happy about Fu's decision, nor she really gave her consent at that moment to become the Guardian.  
> For the Miraculous Box, if the yo-yo can keep miraculous inside it, maybe it can swallow the box too. Besides, it could maybe be safer if the miraculous is inside some weird bag of holding, instead of just hiding inside a teenager's room.  
> I felt like this chapter was less… Canon than the others. I didn’t inspire myself much in this one with events in the show, since it’s a lot of unknown possibilities that are starting to accumulate.   
> Still, thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to join a good ML server on discord, here’s a link for it : https://discord.gg/mlfanworks  
> It’s also related to other servers that talk about ML. One of them though is one for irl problems, if you need some help and some friends with an open ear. We aren’t specialists at all, and we will recommend you go talk to specialists if needed. But if you want to rant to people, and have some new friends, here’s a link as well: https://discord.gg/rMhrYjHRmP


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